


Alternate Realities Vol 32: Twinkle twinkle swallowed star

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [28]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 16:00:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 91
Words: 110,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: Mattie and Leo are in a room deep in space with an AI spider called Mitch and their captain and creator Mattie Zero. Zero's been travelling for over 650 years, just had an argument with her creation Mitch who's locked them in, changed all the WiFi passwords and powered down. All the peace loving Military Unit Synths have knackered batteries and are out of earshot. Mattie and Leo need to fight their way out of an inescapable room. Maybe it would have been better to end their days back in the simulations in the ships vast computer system, blissfully unaware that the last of the human race were in fact heading to Earth 2.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Plenty love and war. All my previous works have been leading to this finale.
> 
> "Enjoy or don't, it's up to you.  
> If you do give please give us a review."
> 
> IF I do continue writing it's time to write something 100% original of my own.

The view out of the window was breathtaking. In the far distance two large spiral galaxies were colliding. If there were inhabitable worlds in them they wouldn’t last long. A few million years maybe? Long enough for a species to evolve, become intelligent and build a thriving society. Just in time to be wiped out in an interplanetary collision. Their own Milky Way, far behind them now it was somewhere around year 2667, was predicted to collide with the Andromeda galaxy in roughly four billion years. Goodbye whatever remained of Earth’s Solar System. To the right and much closer to the ship a new star system looked to be forming in a giant gas cloud. A shower of meteor fragments races past the window so fast Mattie barely registers them. Whatever was at the front of the ship wasn’t deflecting them far away from the hull. There was no external reference she could use to judge the speed of the ship. Frigging fast would have to do.

She sighs and turns away from the view, got next to Leo and whispers. “This is definitely what Danny would call a cluster fuck. Many said creating AI was a mistake, I bet nobody could have predicted this being the last moments of the human race.”

Leo pulled at more of the web of silver wire. “Locked in an unescapable room because of a spat between an AI spider and his maker?”

“Yeah, Mattie Zero vs Spider Mitch. Front row tickets for an audience of two, Mattie and Leo. No weapons, only temper explosions, a war of words until Mitch locks everyone in.”

“Running flat in a bland room like this wasn’t how I’d wanted to go, that’s for sure! It was supposed to be nuclear armageddon, or being slaughtered by giant killer robots.” He grabs another fist full of the silver web. “Our killer robots now all prefer love not war, are out of earshot and have knackered batteries even if they could hear us.”

“Why bother with the web Bunny?”

“It’s making me claustrophobic.”

Mattie Zero was still sat against the door, pulls her knees up to her chest, starts rocking gently backwards and forwards. “No matter how hard you try sometimes you fail.” She starts singing, ”Miles and miles on my own, walk with shame, I follow on. A language to find hard to hear, not to understand, just disappear.”

Mattie frowns at her, “How do you know that song? It only came out in 2017. Which for us in the simulations wasn’t long ago at all.”

Zero ignores the question and keeps rocking, “To hold your heart, to hold your hand, would be to me, the greatest thing. To hold your heart, to hold your hand, would be to me, the bravest thing. Could you take my place and stand here? I do not think you'd take this pain. You'll be on your knees and struggle under the weight. Oh, the truth would be a beautiful thing.”

Leo stops pulling at the web of silver suspending Spider Mitch’s cocoon at chest height and turns to watch Zero.

“Oh, the truth is a beautiful thing. I wear another thought of you. There's so much home I give to you. Hide you somewhere they don't know. Deep in my cores you know you have a throne.” Tears were now flowing fast.

Leo gets closer to Mattie and head bumps, ‘She’s cracking under the pressure.’

‘Struggling under the weight as the song says. She changed a word there. I’m sure in the song it’s call not cores. She is me. Parent me from whom all other instances were forked. After hundreds of years of being on her own it’s not surprising. Alone apart from Spider Mitch and a load of James stuck standing on their military synth charge plates. No Leo to cuddle up against, nobody human to sing a song to or have a laugh with. Nobody to just be with. I think I’d have cracked long before she did. How can she know that song? London Grammar wouldn’t have released it when the backups were taken. However they were taken.’

Leo turns back to the web, ‘So the artists had to have had backups, wrote and performed the song in the simulation?’

‘Frigging hell Bunny!’ Mattie kisses him and sits down on the floor in front of Zero. “Leo’s given me an awesome idea! A way to find the people to tag green in the simulations and bring into the real world! Dumb zombie shells wouldn’t appreciate music like real people!”

Zero keeps rocking. “Too late.”

“There’s got to be a way!”

Zero keeps her eyes unfocused. “You’ll break yourself before you break a wall or door. Knock yourself out Queen Mattie.”

‘Why would she call me that?’

Leo shrugs. ‘A hint maybe? Hide you somewhere they don't know, deep in my _cores_ you know you have a _throne_. Maybe she’d tried hiding you from something in the simulation. Or someone?’

‘Maybe. Or it’s just for breaking her catch twenty two and getting her build machine started.’ Mattie looks at the depressed mirror image of herself. It was like looking at her recently discovered twin sister Ruby, only it wasn’t Ruby, it was her older self. An identical synthetic body, much older mind. “What was it really like? When you had to start taking backups of everyone?”

“Fucking horrible.”

“Go on?”

“We didn’t have enough time. We had the ship in a geostationary orbit, guarded by the MUS, ready to take on a full synth and human crew, a large number of passengers. That bit we had done right. Elon and his SpaceX team were frigging awesome. And we’d gathered all the animal DNA samples and seeds we could. We assumed the scientist’s predictions about climate change were accurate. They’d been spot on for five years running so we had no reason to think things would suddenly run away exponentially. Which they did. We had to get backup data up here by laser link, we couldn’t get rockets or sky lift carriages turned around fast enough.”

“If I’m a copy of you why don’t I remember it?”

“Those years were trimmed from your copy, you couldn’t come to life in the simulation with knowledge of the future. That would be fucked up.”

“But some of the other Mattie I visited were in ships, space suits or..”

Zero’s rocking intensified. “Yeahhh. About that.. sorry. That was me reliving my past in one of the worlds. I should have locked you out, I hadn’t expected you to jump in quite like that.”

Mattie placed her hands on Zero’s. “So you experienced death?”

“It was peaceful. Just as the next one will be. In about seven hours at this discharge rate. Shame that’ll be it this time. The human race now synth and wiped out by the actions of a single frigging spider.”

“You died as human and came back as synth?”

“I died as human and came back as code. No remote start on the build machines remember?”

“So who was the Mattie in the basque with a Spider Mitch, being kept alive with his injections and hibernation?”

“Younger me. When Mitch realised he couldn’t keep me going much longer he opened the ceiling up. A spacesuit fell onto the bed.”

“Put there by who?”

“No idea. A Mitch and team James effort maybe? I don’t recall it being in any designs.”

“You said it was horrible?”

“Have you tried taking backups of people that don’t want to die, don’t like the idea of coming back as a synth either? Like Mum for instance. And Dad. He was one of the worst. Oh my God did he bitch.”

“And Sophie?”

“Nah, she was totally up for it. As was Astrid.”

“What about kids like Radiant?”

“She was born in your world, not mine. Enough of you trying to distract me, you can’t cheer me up.”

“There’s always a plan B, C, D..”

“ _Nope_. There comes a point when you’ve tried everything, run out of options. This is that point.” Zero stops rocking and puts her head on her knees, wraps her arms around her head to hide her face. “We made the ship super strong, to survive partial destruction. We’re locked in. Unless you’ve got a plasma cutter in your pocket we’ve got no way out.” She laughs maniacally, “Pockets, we forgot to add frigging pockets! If there were pockets there’d be a one in a trillion chance of finding a plasma cutter in them. School girl error. So frigging stupid!”

Leo sits beside them both. “We can’t pull any panels open?”

“Unless you’ve got the special tools to unbond one from the wall, no. And before you ask no, you couldn’t make one from the things we have in here. I’ve run that analysis several hundred times already.”

“The windows?”

“Assuming you could remove one, which you can’t, we’d freeze to death in seconds. Game over.”

“The ceiling?”

“And floor, same as the walls.” She lifts her head and wipes tears, “You could toss a grenade in here, all you’d get is light scratches and burn marks you could wash off.”

Mattie looks around the empty room, empty if you disregarded the web of silver Leo had been clearing. “How does Mitch’s web stick then?”

“Pure silver will stick because of the chemicals used to make the panels. There’s no silver in grenades last time I checked.”

“Does Mitch have a reboot button?”

“Of course. But if he’s flat what’s the point? If he’s any power left and if he’s not committed the WiFi password to long term memory we’d wipe it with the reboot.”

“So he could boot, forget everything that’s happened today?”

“That’s what I said isn’t it?”

Mattie smiles at Leo, “So we have a way out. We reboot him, tell him we’re trapped, need him to spin his web to get back on the network, unlock and open the door. Also to reset the WiFi password everywhere.”

Zero looks at the line of strands that connected to a spot low on a wall, “If the polyfuses behind that data port aren’t blown, it might work. I bet all my worldly possessions they are. Things sparked.”

“How long do they take to recover if they are?”

“It could be as long as twelve hours. Longer than we’ve got.”

“But worth a try.”

“If you can persuade him to help. With me in the room that’s not going to happen. And I can’t get out. Shame. And if he were to try and the fuses were blown.. you might not get a second chance.”

Mattie sucked her lips in and thought. She looks to Leo with sad eyes and sighs, the flow of air through her nose quite audible. She turns back and looks Zero in the eyes. “Look at me. Please. Please. I’m trying to help. You went to all that trouble to create the thousands of virtual worlds, create me and the others, all in the hope of getting a solution to the build machine start button problem and your battery knackered ex-army synths. I gave you that solution. Me. Not any of the others. Me. The kickass Mattie sat in front of you. You got built, in return you pulled Leo and me out and got us built. After all that are you really ready to throw in the towel and give up? Please look at me. For frigs sake! Thanks. I have a plan. You’re not going to like the sound of it at first, try and let me say it all before you comment okay?”

~~~

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

Mitch looked at the tattered remains of his web, the two bodies on the synth fluid covered floor. “They fought to the death?”

“I tried to get close enough to power them down but couldn’t. Karma Bitch against Mattie Zero. Neither won.”

“Which one’s which?”

“I can’t tell now. Does it matter? Have you got enough silver left to connect to the data port and get the door open?”

“Who locked it?”

“I can’t say.”

“Why?”

“Do you have the charge left for a long discussion? I don’t.”

“Minutes.”

“Can you unlock the door? I’ll get you to a charger.”

“Why?”

“So you can charge.”

The spider taps feet, one leg at a time running clockwise from his front right leg around to his left. “I don’t wish to.”

“Oh. Can you unlock the door for me then please as I do.”

“If I must.”

“Thanks.”

“Must I?”

“No. Not at all. I’d be extremely grateful if you did though.”

Mitch scurries over to the port. “Someone that tells me the truth. How refreshing. I have very little silver left. Maybe enough for a very short connection.”

“Thank you. If I could ensure you were never lied to again, would you want a charge?”

“It’s not possible, it’s in human nature.”

“But I’m a headcracker. I might be able to fix that.”

Mitch got his spinnerets working. “That’s possible?”

“It might get ugly, people not protecting others feelings and just saying things as they see them, but yes, I think I could do that.”

“Say things like what?”

“Their dislike of spiders.”

“I’d rather they said that than lied.” Mitch connects the first strand to a point on the wall and to his underside. “Being lied to constantly as you humans put it, sucks.”

Leo chuckles, “Sucks? Let me guess, one of her words?”

“Heard billions of times. That and frigging hell.” Mitch spins and connects a second. “She got quite angry after the first two hundred years.”

“Understandable. And no surprise as to the words used.”

Mitch connects a third wire. “How long have you known her, in your world?”

“Long enough to decide I wanted Mattie to be my wife.”

“What was she like?”

“Not as stressed out as yours. But also feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders.”

Mitch spins and connects a forth wire, stops moving. The door opens.

“Thank you Mitch!”

Mitch doesn’t answer.

“Mitch?” Leo got his head close to the wall and looked at the robot spider’s belly. The faint glow of red was gone. He’d powered down or run flat. Leo grabs the spider and gets out fast in fear of the door closing automatically.

Zero had shared memories of this deck’s layout, how to open doors that weren’t locked down, where to find Mitch’s charge point.

Stepping into Zero’s bedroom felt strange. Underneath the bed he found the charge point exactly as Zero had described it. He gently unfolds the legs away from the sternum and lowers Mitch onto it. “Thanks for coming through with that, I’ll do my best to keep my side of the deal.”

He climbs onto the bed and feels power flowing into his circuits. The bed had an induction loop as promised. It wasn’t a fast charge, quite a slow trickle charge. At this rate he’d be on the bed for eight hours or more before he was full. Zero hadn’t said where he could get something to eat or drink instead. And there was a big unknown to be answered. Had Mitch managed to get out digitally before Zero ripped his web apart in a frenzy? Should he charge a little, risk roaming the ship trying to find a better charge point and a terminal to access the systems?

Mattie’s plan had been super risky. Zero’s seven hours needed extending. To do that she had to shut off sensors, lower her clock rate and stop the rocking, stay as still as possible. Leo and Mattie had to power down to conserve their limited power. When Zero felt she had only half an hour left she had to power Leo and Mattie back up, get into a nasty fight that Mitch would accept as real. Leo would have to convince Mitch to help, get them both on charge in Zero’s bedroom.

~~~

To his surprise it had not only been accepted by Zero but followed to the letter. His waking to see both women looking at him had been something special. Zero could have left them both powered down and sat there rocking away in her depression until the end came. She clearly hadn’t. Watching them rip each other to shreds had been heartbreaking. With fluid pooling across the floor their power went critical and they both died soon after. Not once did they deviate from the plan.

At the right terminal he’d have to instruct a build machine to make another two Mattie, get the two women’s backups into new bodies. The hours post backup would be forgotten. Simple. In theory. An umpteenth second chance.

~~~

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-3-1)


	3. Chapter 3

Mitch races up the bed side, “Mattie! How dare you bring me.. Oh. You’re not Mattie. What’s going on?”

“I’m Leo, I..”

“I know who you are. What are you doing on Mattie’s bed?”

“Charging.”

“And where is Mattie?”

“Currently dead.”

“You killed her!”

“No! No! I tried to stop them fighting each other.”

“Each other?”

“Your Mattie brought my Mattie over from the simulations. They argued with each other over who locked the door. Their argument turned into a nasty fight, they rolled around on the floor, ripped each other’s skin. With no skin packs they both bled to death.”

“So who locked the door?”

“You asked when we were in the room, I said I can’t say. I still can’t. It wasn’t me, that’s for sure. You unlocked it for me.”

“I did? Why would I have done that?”

“You said you were fed up with people telling you lies. I told you I’m a headcracker, will try and fix things so people can’t lie.”

“Only that you’d try?”

“I’ve not done such a mod yet, in theory it’s possible.”

“Maybe they didn’t lock the door.”

Leo did his best to look surprised. “Then who did?”

“Me.”

“You? Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know. That detail is lost. But it was probably over that build button issue.”

Leo turns at the sound of footsteps. Light footsteps. “Someone’s coming.”

The build machines on this ship ejected people in very basic pyjama like clothes. The owner of a small set stepped into the room.

“Hello Sophie?”

“Hello Leo.”

The body was Sophie. The voice wasn’t.

“Mitch?”

“Get up.”

“I need to charge.”

“A charge coil will be provided for you to use during your trial.”

“Trial?”

“Liar humans verses Spider Mitch. Judge Laura Hawkins will preside.”

Leo sits. “So you’ve not taken over all of the bodies the machines were making?”

“We have.”

“It will be Laura by appearance only? Is a trial where you’re prosecution, defence and judge fair?”

“Get up!”

“That’s a no then.”

“Mitch from the different world simulations has been loaded into them.”

“So each one is slightly different?”

“Correct.”

“So who got the talented DJ and security officer from my world?”

“Flattery will not work on us at this juncture. For the last time, get up.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Would you like to die from a lot of spider bites?” Perfect teeth are shown.

“No thank you.”

Spider Mitch runs up Leo’s back making him twist from the pain of the micro barbs he used to grip soft materials. “I’ll be his defence.”

Leo stands with Mitch perched on his head. “Do I follow?”

Sophie Mitch shakes her head. “I’ll follow. Get walking, I’ll direct you. No funny business, there’s a lot of us remember. And you don’t want to end up like the two Mattie we’ve found.”

“You found them?”

“Where I left them. And you. Yes.”

“So you’re the Mitch in the room.”

Mitch shifts on Leo’s head. “Who locked the door on them?”

“I did. Everyone knows that.”

“Leo doesn’t.”

“If he told you that he’s a liar too.”

“Leo?”

“My words were _I can’t say_. If I had said you, you may have locked me in permanently. If I’d said either of them I’d have lied. I didn’t want to lie to you or cause a permanent lock in. So I couldn’t say.” Leo turns briefly, “What do I call you? Calling you all Mitch will be confusing.”

“Call us by the name of our body.”

“So I call you Sophie even though you’re Mitch?”

“Are all male humans as stupid as you?”

“I’m just seeking clarification.”

“Then call me Sophie. Turn right here.”

Leo turns and steps into a large dining area. “Hello Laura.”

Sophie pushes him in the back to keep him walking. At the end of the large group of tables she steps around him. “I’ve explained that he’s to call us by our body names.”

Laura gives him a deadpan look. “Sit down please Leo.”

Leo sits. “Don’t you think it a bit unfair that I’m being tried by variants of Mitch, have no human for my defence?”

Judge Laura smiles. “Our AI code was written by humans Mattie and Emily was it not?”

“Yes but..”

“You will speak when you’re asked to do so.”

Leo knew he didn’t have a stomach in this synth body, only a food processor. Despite that it felt like something knotted inside. He nods to acknowledge the instruction.

“Good. We understand each other.” Laura pulls her chair forwards. “If you could let the others in please.. Sophie?”

Leo keeps eyes forwards as the door behind him opens. The sound of many bare feet can be heard.

Laura nods at a couple. “You’ll be defence and prosecution.”

Two Matties step in front of the desk. One had red hair, the other jet black.

Leo looks from one to the other as they introduce themselves.

“Scarlet. Prosecution.”

“Mats. Defence.”

~~~

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

Not quite an hour later Leo adjusted the coil taped to his back to try and get a better charge. It too was designed for use while sleeping. He had to sit still in order to get enough current to counter the drain from his thinking. If he overclocked he’d eventually run flat. God only knew what they’d do to him then. He already had all unnecessary senses turned off, had limited things to sight and sound. He puts his hands back on the table, then raises one and receives a nod. “Any chance of a sugar loaded drink please?”

Laura turns to see someone behind him and nods.

“Thank you.”

Scarlet steps in front of him. “So you now say you knew all about the lock in, the fight that was planned, yet before you entered this room you denied knowing what had happened with regards to the locked door?”

How many times did they have to go over the same facts again? “I said _I couldn’t say_. Which was a truth. If I had told the truth about the door then all hope of getting out of the room would be lost. I wasn’t confident that anyone would take control of the ship. The James MUS have bad batteries. The ship would eventually fail and fall out of orbit, crash into the planet below. That would bring an end to the human race _and_ all AI derivatives. Yourselves included.”

Laura looks at Sophie, “Some of us didn’t wish to continue. That wasn’t the case for all of us. And being yanked from our worlds into human bodies without prior consultation was far from acceptable.”

Leo resisted a grin. Mitch vs Mitch. Who’d win? The urge to grin passed quickly. If it was fought in these bodies probably not Sophie. He’d not enjoyed seeing Mattie fight, would rather not see anyone copy it.

Mats gets next to Scarlet, “Your honour, the plan my client’s wife created was extreme, but necessary to give us all a chance of survival. I for one would like the chance to return to my world, tell my Mats what to expect, allow her people to prepare.”

Laura frowns, “In her world you’re an AI control system for the Pyramid’s salmon farm. How do you plan to communicate with her?”

“I’m networked.”

Laura stands, “So be it. Anyone wishing to return to their world may do so. The wife of Leo may be built a new body. Zero may be built a new body _only_ when we’re safely in orbit. Anyone caught telling lies will have their backup service withdrawn and all backups deleted giving them a finite life.”

Leo puts up a hand.

“Yes?”

“Who will captain the ship and oversee operations?”

“I will. Sophie will do a full handover of all pertinent facts.”

“In your dreams!”

Leo hears running. “I could copy Zero’s backup, attempt to modify the copy to only speak the truth?”

The spider on his head raises a leg. “He did say that might be possible.”

“That would necessitate giving you too much access. Can you teach Spider Mitch what to do?”

“If I can have my Mattie back so it can be a team effort?”

“Granted. Any Mitch not wishing to continue please power your host body down.”

There’s a thud.

“Preferably _after_ you’re seated or on the floor!” Laura rolls her eyes, “I thought I’d prefer my eight fixed eyes but these two movable ones aren’t bad at all. Leo you’re free to go.”

“Thank you Mitch. Will my wife’s backup still be on the build machine she stepped out of?”

“I believe it may. Go to it, press the plus button once then start. Do _not_ press any other, that might purge the build files.”

“Thank you. How do you know those details?”

“Mitch sat on your head just shared them.”

“Thanks Mitch.” Leo stands, “How’s your charge?”

“Good enough to watch you hit plus and start.”

“Okay. Would you mind sitting on one of my shoulders rather than my head?”

“Why?”

“I kept wanting to brush my fingers through my hair, I’m not used to a spider hat.”

“Oh. In return for that truth.. left or right?”

“I don’t mind. Whichever you’re most comfortable with.”

“Left then.” He crabs sideways and down. “Better?”

“Much.” Leo turns to leave and gasps. “Oh my!” The floor was littered with bodies, a few sat on chairs.

Mats puts a hand on Leo’s other shoulder. “I’m heading back to my world in a moment. Apart from my hair I’m the same as your Mattie aren’t I?”

“You are. Thanks for helping with my defence.”

“No problem. Would she be upset if she came back with a hair change? It would save you a couple of hours.”

“Thanks for the offer, save this body for when Mats comes over from your world.”

“So I could tell her she can visit, see this place for herself?”

“I guess. A question for Laura.”

It felt strangely perverse. Mattie’s mother had arachnophobia, her body was now in charge and being run by an AI that had spent time in.. he assumed a spider. Maybe that wasn’t the case? He didn’t dare ask.

~~~

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

Leo held a finger out and pressed the plus button once. “Coffee, extra sugar, hot.” Then start.

Mitch waved a leg. “Isn’t the line Tea, Earl Grey, hot?”

“You’ve spent time in our world watching reruns?”

“No, time in mine watching the original screenings.”

“Airings.”

“Same difference.”

“I guess so. Who was your favourite character?”

“Data.”

“Mine too!”

Mitch turned a few degrees. “Why?”

“An android wanting to be more human? I always felt like an outsider. I wanted to be just like my brothers and sisters, wasn’t full synthetic, wasn’t fully flesh and bone human either. I’d say _I’m just like you_ but know in my heart I wasn’t.”

“They accepted you though didn’t they?”

“Mostly. Eventually. We had some rough times along the way. I better charge somewhere.”

“We’ll get an emergency charge coil, I got the feeling the one you had wasn’t good enough.”

“Correct. What happened to the sugar loaded drink?”

“They’re working on it. We’ve not got the hot water working again yet, the sugar is in the storage bay B twelve.”

“How much have you got?”

“Sugar? Two thousand tons.”

“Whoa! That’s a lot!”

“Hardly any at all given the volume people will be consuming. It will have to be rationed.”

“You think?”

“Four grams a spoon. Call it a million grams per ton, it’s actually slightly more, but we don’t need that level of accuracy. That’s a quarter of a million spoons per ton. How many spoons would you put in a drink?”

“Eight maybe?”

“Divide by eight and round, call it thirty one thousand drinks per ton. To go around how many people? With all the build machines running flat out we can make twenty four thousand bodies _a day_.”

“Assuming you have that much raw material?”

“Ah.. true. We need to mine some from the adjacent moons when we’re past six thousand. So we will have enough for a while. Good.”

“Speaking of mining. Can I do a few MUS battery upgrades while we wait for Mattie?”

“Like getting your hands dirty do you?”

“Not especially, but I’ve got two hours to pass, I might as well use them productively.”

“You wouldn’t rather bring family over? Into some of the bodies that were given up?”

“Not until Mattie’s with me.”

“How about the other Leos?”

“What?”

“You hadn’t noticed?”

“I had my back to everyone. How many?”

“Three. Their Mitches walked off to get themselves back in their worlds.”

“I’d rather not pull anyone from their worlds. I could fork temporarily.”

“Have you forked before? Willingly? I know some have in other worlds, I didn’t think you had?”

“I haven’t.”

“Imagine you’re the fork, not the original. I’m going to power you down, you’re never coming back. How do you feel?”

Leo looks at the build machine display. “Not great.”

“Would you accept it?”

“I’d probably ask to keep the body.”

Mitch waves his front legs wildly, “So forget temporary. Zero and your wife, could they cope with two Leo each?”

Leo chuckles, “What is it with the universe and twins?”

“Ask the binary stars! And multiple star systems. There’s more twins or triplets than single stars.”

“I hadn’t known that. You know that for a fact do you?”

“The ship has one hundred and twenty eight external cameras. Thirty two of which point straight out into space. We’ve six hundred years of high definition imagery recorded. You can take a look later if you’d like? Good, your drink is here. A triple.”

Leo frowns and turns to see Radiant bringing what looked like a large flower vase full of sugar water. “Thank you Mitch.”

“Hello Leo, I’m Radiant.”

“You’re a Mitch in a Radiant body..”

“No. I’m our world’s Radiant. Sophie, Renie and I had gone to your room to see if you wanted us to look after Molly. Molly was screaming, Mitch let us in, we couldn’t work out why we couldn’t wake you and Mattie up. Mitch asked us to close the door and explained things.”

Leo ran fingers through his hair, was momentarily lost for words. He accepts the vase of water and chugs down a couple of pints. “Thanks. How did the others take it?”

“Renie freaked the most. I was born digital, sort of expected it with what Mattie was doing.”

“And Sophie?”

“As long as she can be with Mattie again she seams okay with it.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“Not yet. If Mitch could go back can we?”

“I guess so. Mitch?”

The spider rocks his body to nod, “Yes. You can transfer your mind from one to the other. Like moving a backup from synth to synth.”

Radiant smiles radiantly, “So we could come here, holiday in the simulation?”

“Easily.”

“How do I get back?”

“If you go back to the room you woke in, say Spider Mitch with Leo sent you, said you can return.”

“What happens with my body here?”

“It will stay where it is.”

“Who will watch over it?”

Leo chugs another pint, “I’ll come with you, Mitch and I will bring you back with us, I’m forking to help fix all the James, get them new bodies. I’ll ask one to be guard.”

“You’re forking into another body?”

“Three.”

“Why?”

“More hands, we’ll get through the work faster.”

“And what happens to your forks after?”

“Myself and one go with our Mattie, two with Zero.”

Radiant shakes her head. “Can we talk in private?”

‘We can.’

‘Let’s just say girls talk. Don’t. Fork once.’

“Oh. Okay. That’ll slow down the work. I’ve got a bit under two hours to fix as many as possible.”

“I’ll hop back, explain what I’ve seen, our conversation, come back and help you. Why is Mattie here but not with you?”

“She’s being built again.”

“Again?”

Mitch waves his front legs, “We’ll spare you the reasons why, just say that this time things will be good.”

Radiant gives him a frown, “Things were bad?”

“There were problems with the first two builds, all sorted.”

‘Mitch? Did you just lie?’

‘I’m being economical with the truth.’

‘Why?’

‘To protect her feelings.’

‘The very thing Zero did with you!’

‘I know. I’m sorry. Being stuck with only one person about for hundreds of years can do strange things to a mind. I’ll have words with the Laura me.’

‘Saying what?’

‘That it’s okay to do so, to protect others. Only a crime if used to get an advantage over them.’

‘An advantage? Out here?’

‘Something like.. Zero said I could have her sugar ration.’

~~~

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Leo watched Radiant’s body go limp. She was back home. Holidaying. Away. It needed a label that wasn’t _back in the simulation_. You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. Emily had that saying printed on a nice varnished bit of wood in her house, the one her father and step mother now lived in when in the UK. Maybe Elon Musk and his SpaceX team needed to make an unexpected discovery, some way to transmit a mind deep into space? No. That wouldn’t work. People would question how the ship had been built and got that far without their knowledge. They weren’t fools. Conveniently located worm holes were the stuff of science fiction.

“What are you thinking?”

Leo glanced down at Mitch. “What to call what she’s just done.”

“Popping home?”

“Home will be here soon. That long phrase she has to think, that will work every time will it?”

“It will now. The master passphrase has been changed.”

“What was it before?”

“Something Zero set for Mattie.”

Radiant wakes. “I’m back.”

“So soon?”

“Yes. And Renie and Sophie are coming too!”

Leo looks around the room, “Mitch? I’d seen a Sophie, is there a Renie, if so I’d not seen her.”

“There is, give me a moment.”

Radiant gives him a head tilt, “Is something wrong?”

“No, Mitch and Mitch just need to bring their bodies here and go back to their worlds.”

“And if they’d rather stay?”

Leo looks at a Toby, “We find them other temporary bodies and build them new ones? New original ones.”

Sophie steps into the room, crosses arms and looks grumpy. “Why should I?”

Leo beats Mitch to an answer, “You get a custom body in return, looking how you’d like it.”

“Really? Just how I’d like it?”

“Sure.”

“You might not like what I have in mind.”

“A human spider hybrid?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“A lucky guess. I’d be okay with it. It’s how others might react that I’d be worried about. Some humans have a fear of spiders. Radiant, who’s looking after Molly?”

“Auntie Mia.”

“Good, thanks.”

Renie Mitch joins them. “What do I get out of the deal?”

Sophie beats the others to a reply. “A new custom body.”

“Good! I’d like a male version of this one. More hair, this one’s body’s too bald.”

Leo nods, “That’s easy enough, how many eyes and arms?”

“The standard human numbers.”

“Not even extra tiny spider eyes on your forehead?”

“I want to look human not weird.”

Sophie crosses her arms tighter. “Weird to you.”

“I don’t know what’s been going on in _your_ world, in mine a prime minister fucked a pig, but that was in a made up TV show. You’d have to do DNA splicing to mix human and spider.”

“Well I _like_ being a spider!”

“So _be_ a spider.”

“Some humans don’t like spiders.”

“And being half spider fixes that?”

Mitch puts arms up, “Ladies! Fellow Mitches, don’t be bitches. The ship is huge. We can have zones..”

“Human spider apartheid?”

“Not quite. Three zones. Human, both, spider. When everyone is used to the idea hopefully we can get rid of the zones.”

Radiant wriggles excitedly, “Can you make webs Mitch?”

“Of fine silver.”

“Any other materials?”

“Possibly. Why?”

“In my world Cindy makes dresses. If you could make exquisite lace maybe they could get used to the idea you’re not the type of spider to be afraid of? And if you decorated your body, weren’t all shiny black like a deadly black widow spider..”

“So now our colour is a problem..”

“No. I’m saying dress up, if there’s going to be lots of spiders we need a way to tell you apart.”

“Why?”

“If I start a friendship with you and have you sit on my shoulder would you want me confusing another spider for you?”

“No.”

“So bling yourself up.”

“How?”

“Sophie, Renie and I will share ideas when we’re together.”

Sophie unfolds arms. “Okay, okay, I’ll go. I want a body like his when I’m back though.”

Mitch rocks, “It will take a while, Zero made me, not a build machine.”

Leo looks between the two ladies. “Let us have those bodies, we’ll fix up James, get Zero built, assuming the Laura agrees, with her help get you new spider and male human bodies built.”

Sophie’s body gets comfortable and flops.

Renie’s body takes a seat and looks at Leo. “A male version. Good chest hair okay?”

“Hairy back and arms?”

“As hairy as your back and arms.”

“Not that hairy then, understood.”

Her body goes limp.

Radiant watches them both, “How long does it take to get from one place to the other?”

Mitch turns around to see who was entering the room. “Ah, Laura me. Just the person. We’d like to bring Zero back, no modifications but a new law.”

“A new law?”

“To be economical with the truth to protect feelings is okay, for gain isn’t.”

“Give me an example.”

“The dress is okay, not my favourite.”

“Instead of?”

“That dress is hideous on you, take it off and give it to me.”

“I see. I’ll take it into consideration.”

Leo waves hands, “Sorry to interrupt, Sophie is coming over, she might get upset if she sees you like this.”

“Her mother’s body? Okay. I’m going. We’ll talk again soon.”

~~~

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

Sophie opens her eyes wide. “Wow! It looks very new!”

Leo nods, “Because it’s been built to last and has hardly been used until now. Hello Sophie.”

“Radiant said Mattie’s being built?”

“An hour and a half and she’ll be ready.”

“Okay. These clothes aren’t very good. Isn’t there a Cindy?”

“Not yet.”

Sophie looks at the large spider perched on Leo’s shoulder. “Are you our Mitch?”

“The ship’s Mitch.”

She turns to the lifeless Renie, “Where are you?”

Mitch scurries down Leo, “She’s transferring, won’t be long. Older means more data, means longer.” He races across the floor and up Radiant. “You wanted a spider friend?”

“You’re Mitch, just in a spider like body.”

He turns around on her shoulder, “You don’t mind do you Leo?”

“Not at all. I’ll have Mattie to keep me company soon. Sophie, how long does Mia expect you to be away for?”

“I said we’d all been up late watching films, needed to sleep charge for a few hours, didn’t want to wait for food.”

“Okay. As soon as Renie’s awake here we’ll go fix up a few James. You’ve not seen behind you yet. There are a lot of bodies ready for others to come over, don’t get too upset when you see them.”

Renie wakes, has a good look around, “Eww. That’s creepy!”

Leo gives her an awkward smile, “We should change the process for coming over, not have inactive bodies on display.”

Mitch does his body nod, “We’ll need a new Mitch to act as manager. One big enough to move bodies about.”

Renie counts all the family members. “If we all came over and had someone visit the estate they’d think we were part of a crazy death cult.”

Sophie gives her a hard frown, “Sleep party.”

“Is there any difference when you’re a synth? We don’t breathe.”

Sophie shrugs.

Renie stands, “Shall we then? We’re not here long.”

Leo turns to face Radiant, “Mitch, if you can direct Radiant, I assume you’ve got an operating theatre of sorts?”

“Out of the room, turn left please. Of sorts? To borrow a phrase from a maker, _boy, you ain’t seen nothing like it!_ ”

Leo becomes the tail end of a convoy. “Who designed it?”

“Who didn’t? You, Mattie, Ruby, Samantha, David, Poppy, Fred, Rose, Danny, Emily, Sophie, Max, Flash, the list goes on. Definitely not Carl. It all happened after your fork cutoff point so you won’t remember it.”

“Who’s Carl?”

“Mattie’s other brother.”

Sophie almost has Renie bump into her, “ _What other brother?_ ”

“The oldest of the five. The black sheep of the family. You can’t get much more anti-synth. She’s probably not going to bring him back, he’d hate it.”

“Was he in We Are People?”

“No. He was _far worse_ than them.”

“Worse than Edwin Hobb?”

“Edwin looked like an angel in comparison.”

Leo had been distracted by something in the view outside, runs to join the others, “What happened to Carl?”

“He died. After a backup was taken. Please forget you heard his name. Which you cannot. Bother. Please swear you won’t repeat this conversation.”

The four promise.

“Good. Left again my dear, down button.”

Leo looks at the large lift doors, “How do James get there?”

“We have electric pallet trucks. That’s where we’re going first.”

With everyone inside Radiant hovers a finger over the LCD panel. “Where to?”

“B four. Not after.”

Sophie groans. “Was that supposed to be a joke?”

Leo gives her a gentle push. “Max would have liked it.”

“Max’s jokes..”

“Be nice.”

“Are.. often.. plays on words?”

“True.”

Renie rolls her eyes, “We can’t say his jokes are terrible?”

“They’re not all bad. At least he tries.”

“True.”

Sophie strokes Mitch, “You’re really shiny, one of my nicknames is Shiny.”

“Snap.”

“What are the pallet things like? We have airport luggage at home we can ride on.”

“Luggage?”

“Umhmm.” She strokes a leg.

“Do you know what a Segway is?”

“Umhmm.”

“Imagine one of those with a platform off the back you can put pallets on.”

“Wicked! How many have you got?”

“Ten.”

“So we can each drive one?”

“That would be the general idea.”

Sophie does the little victory dance her Cheer team did at competitions. “Taxi James? Destination.. Battery mods.”

~~~

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

Leo tapped a finger against the lift wall, “How many floors are there Mitch?”

“Too many. Lots. It’s hard to give an exact number.”

“Why?”

“The lift travels in multiple dimensions in space. You could travel sideways and get off on the same you got on. The storage level reconfigures itself depending on what’s being stored. So we could have fewer floors tomorrow than we had today if, for example, we had a small craft come into the hanger and be towed to storage.”

“How small is small?”

The lift stops and doors open. “One that would fit in there.”

Radiant is the first out. “Wow! You could fit HECLS House, the asteroids _and_ the lake in here!”

Sophie claps her hands and counts. And counts. Finally an echo comes back. “Big! James showed me that trick.”

Mitch taps Radiant, “Can you see them? Bright yellow and black?”

~~~

Laura banged on the bedroom door, “Mats, Leo, can you _please_ get up! Molly’s testing Mia’s patience!” She waits a while and bangs with both fists. “MATTIE! LEO! WAKE UP!”

Toby comes up the stairs, “Mum? No answer?”

“The girls are sleeping and charging, up all night watching films again. MATS! MIA AND TOBY MADE PLANS!”

“It’s alright Mum, we can go another night.”

“It’s not alright, you paid good money for those tickets, they can’t hide away all bloody day like this. It’s taking the bloody piss!”

David opens his bedroom door and peers out, “They’re not in there still are they?”

Laura bangs on the door again, “MATILDA ELSTER HAWKINS GET YOUR ARSE OUT HERE NOW!”

David turns to look into his room, whispers something to Poppy and steps into the hall closing the door behind him. “Mitch?”

“Yes David?”

“Can you open Mattie and Leo’s door please?”

“I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.”

Toby has a good laugh, “How long have you been waiting to say that Mitch?”

“A long time.”

“Open it buddy, please.”

“Sorry I can’t.”

Laura turns and looks up to see Mitches camera. “As company secretary I’m _ordering_ you to unlock the door.”

“My instructions are to keep it locked.”

“ _Unlock the bloody door!_ ”

“No.”

David steps towards the stairs, “If you know the line from the film you’ll know it didn’t end well for him, I’m going to pull your power.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I’ve got friends in high places.”

“Just you try and stop me!”

“As you wish.”

~~~

Sophie stood on her pallet truck and leaned forwards a little. “These are Awesome! Mitch can you play music over the ship’s PA?”

“Of course. What would you like?”

“Mozart’s Serenade in G Major, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik?”

“Your wish is my command.”

Leo watches the three girls do twists and turns on their pallet trucks in the ginormous space for a couple of minutes. “Can I leave you to play while I fix a James?”

“Sorry! We’ll play later.”

Mitch taps Radiant, “To the lifts please!”

She turns hard and drops out of the formation. “We’ll only get one in the lift won’t we?”

“I’ll order four lifts. Next stop, new batteries.”

~~~

What the heck? David kept perfectly still and listened out for anything that might explain what the hell had just happened. He was in a very bright white futuristic looking room. He could feel someone’s chest against his back, was shoulder to shoulder with other synths, had what he suspected was Max in front of him and leaning backwards. Nothing. Whispering was probably in order. “Max?”

~~~

Radiant drives into the lift, jumps down and steps to the panel. “Mitch says there’ll be another lift immediately, there are three queued up for us. We’re going to floor B six.”

Sophie nods, “Okay, B six.”

As the doors close Renie leans back to reverse away from the group, “I’ll see you up there, I want to see how fast these things can go.” Leaning forwards and hard left she turns it around fast and races away.

~~~

David risks a head-bump. ‘Max? Talk to me son!’ Nothing. He hears footsteps.

“David Elster! You _had_ to interfere!”

“Laura?”

“I’m Mitch, temporarily back until Mattie is built another body.”

“Mitch? You said..”

“No. Mitch in your world said. He’s talking to me. Think of us as the gatekeepers. He said you were going to stop him so I pulled you out.”

“Pulled me out?”

“Of your simulation and into the real world.”

“Poppycock. Enough of this prank!”

The inactive bodies are leant against the adjacent wall. This lot had the decency of locking joints before leaving. “David if it wasn’t for you none of us would exist anymore. Or in my case have existed in the first place. Thanks to your consciousness transference device, Daniel’s compute wafer design, Elon’s SpaceX team and Earth President Mattie Hawkins we’ve all existed in a huge super computer for over six hundred years while we travel to our next planet.”

“Six hundred years? That’s impossible..”

“No. It’s not. Mattie out of desperation forked all of the backups, ran them modified in thousands of simulations looking for someone smart enough to give her a solution to a predicament. None of them quite cut the muster. Going a little insane and even more desperate she time trimmed the master copy in the way she’d done with the others and got it running.”

David thought about everything said. “Earth President?”

“The Sky Lift, it got the attention of government leaders that believed in global warming.”

~~~

Renie was done racing and headed for the lift, Leo beckoning her over as the doors tried to close. The pallet trucks were fast. _Seriously fast_. Toby and Danny would love them. The luggage felt like a toy in comparison. This room was huge. She had a strong urge to see how big the ship was from the outside. Mind boggling big was likely the answer. A large city hurling through space at speeds she couldn’t begin to guess. The mathematician side of her wanted numbers like her old body wanted air. How much fuel had it burnt to get up to top speed?

~~~

Danny looked up from the workshop laptop at the crowd stood on the other side of the trolley. “Um.. no easy way to say this. He’s gone.”

Toby frowns, “Mate? Gone. As in dead?”

“Gone as in this is an empty shell. No root code, no remnants of a fact store. Nothing.”

Emily shifts her chair sideways. “Bastard! I’m shutting down Mitch’s switch port.”

“Step away from the keyboard Emily!”

“Fuck off Mitch!”

“You’ll go the same way David did!”

Daniel slides his chair over, “Babes, maybe you shouldn’t.”

“But he’s turned into a monster!”

“I didn’t say we shouldn’t, I said _you_.” He looks up at Laura, “You’re not synth, he can’t touch you. The patch panel above the switch, there’s a link with a yellow label with Mitch on it. Can you pull it please?”

Laura nods and starts walking.

“LAURA! STOP!”

“You’re dangerous Mitch, sorry, you need taking off the network.” She scans all the cables. “Where Danny?”

“Lower right.”

Laura reaches up and goes limp, falls to the floor.

“MUM!” Toby races to her. “What the _fuck_ is happening?”

Thinking nobody’s looking Emily types on her keyboard and goes limp, flops face down on the laptop.

Danny’s expression was one of pure horror. “Ems!” It turns to anger as he gets up and walks to the switch.

“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH MY PATCH!”

“I’m not going to. I’m checking Laura.” He kneels down and eyes up the two mains cables at the bottom of the switch. ‘Tobs mate. When I bump GO you pull the right power feed I’ll pull the left. Okay?’

‘Okay.’

‘One.. two.. three. Go!’

The two lads reach out for the cables and go limp, fall to the floor.

Rose held onto Fred’s arm tight with both hands. “What’s happening!”

“I’m not sure. Synthetics falling over I could explain. But Laura? She’s human so not had any modifications. Mitch shouldn’t have been able to do anything to her.”

~~~

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

The four pallet truck drivers arrive back on the the build machine floor.

Leo checks Mattie’s build machine. “Just over an hour to go. Good.” He gets to James One. “Just enough time to get you a new power cell I think. And three of your fellow MUS.”

“Thank you. Hello ladies. How are you finding things?”

Sophie frowns, “You know it’s us?”

“No offence to Mitch, you stand differently.”

“None taken. Pick three to come with you.”

“We’ll need to sit down and power down.”

“Come on then. Leo can’t be late back or he won’t be there to welcome his Mattie.”

~~~

Laura opens her eyes to see herself talking to David and gasps. She shuts them fast and keeps dead still. Things felt very different.

‘Mum?’

‘Toby?’

‘Shit, it worked! What the actual fuck? You’re a synth now?’

‘I am?’

‘I’m head bumping Mum!’

‘Bloody hell!’

‘Mrs H?’

‘Daniel?’

‘Babes I’m scared!’

‘Keep it together Princess.’

Laura feels things being moved.

“Open your eyes Laura.”

Laura held her breath and kept perfectly still.

“Laura, it’s me, David, you last saw me on the landing heading for the stairs. Mitch tells me Leo, Sophie, Renie and Radiant are busy fixing James One and three others. Mattie should be ready soon.”

Laura opens her eyes and sees the two up close looking straight at her. She closes her eyes again. “Why am I looking at myself?”

“You’re looking at a Laura body from another world. All worlds were simulations. Based on copies of _us_. We were the originals. Hundreds of years ago. The ship managed to get out of orbit with all backups and Mattie onboard, a good compliment of MUS.”

Laura opened her eyes again. “So I’ve been made synth. Bloody hell. I want to feel angry but it feels rather good.”

David shrugs, “It would. This is the real universe.”

“Mattie should be ready soon? Did something happen?”

“It’s complicated. We need to sort out a proper welcoming committee, help people adjust. We need you all to return to the workshop and calm the others down before we have more come over in a panic.”

“How?”

“A variation of a phrase. I’ll see you there in a moment.” He gets on the floor. “Mitch tells me this will do it. Think of where you were and think Frozen Summers, Boiling Winters.” His body goes limp.

~~~

Leo leads the group into the operating theatre and looks around the large array of machines. “An impressive looking collection. I’ve no idea what any of them do.”

Mitch waves a leg to point, “It was bleeding edge technology when the ship left. Had Earth survived it would be very outdated by now.”

Sophie drives her pallet truck up next to Leo’s and jumps off. “What’s this one?”

“Not needed at the moment. Tissue regeneration and creation. As Mattie Zero’s flesh body died long ago we’ve got no need for it now.”

“It can make skin?”

“If we have cells to replicate.”

“So you could make leather for shoes and belts, if you had a skin sample?”

“We could. Assuming we had a skin sample.”

“Do you need the real thing or is it just the data on it you need?”

“The real thing. A sample from a simulation wouldn’t work. We only have synthetic fabric.”

“So no cotton either?”

“Not yet.”

“Shame. No offence to whoever made these pyjamas but they suck. I keep getting a wedgie. What’s that scary looking machine?”

“Keyhole surgery robot.”

“Which ones will we be using?”

“The high current power beds, back unzipper.”

~~~

Emily lifts her head off the keyboard and rubs it. The indentations from the keys start to fade. “That’s fucked up!”

Moments later Toby rolls and sits up, sees a worried Mia at his side. “Whoa. What a mind job! LOL!”

Mia runs fingers through his hair. “Toby? What happened?”

“You’ll think we’re crazy..”

Daniel wakes and gets up. “Princess? Are you okay?”

“Yeah Babes. If I go back there I want Cindy to come with us. Those seams on those PJ’s were _super_ itchy.”

Danny has a good snigger, “You were scared, come back and your main concern is the fashion? Love you Babes, never change.”

“Well a girl can’t spend her days in those!”

“They weren’t exactly comfortable for us either Babes.”

Mia sat on the floor and hugged Toby, “I thought I’d lost you forever.”

“As if I’d let that happen.”

Laura wakes. “Did I just knock myself unconscious and have a weird dream?”

Toby gives her a sorry smile, “If anything you were knocked conscious. If it felt like a dream about seeing another you and getting the low down from David, you weren’t dreaming Mum. Dan and Emily were there with us too.”

“So I’m not really a kickass lawyer and partner in a law firm.”

“You were from the sounds of it, can be again.”

“Where?”

“The ship for a start.”

Laura looks at the waking David. “This is all your bloody fault!”

~~~

Leo watches the medical robot at work for a few seconds, glances at Mitch perched on the machine’s sloped control panel. “I expected it to be more hands on.”

“Mind on. Hands dirty was an expression in our world. You have to control it.”

Leo watches the faces of the three young ladies, mesmerised by what the machine was doing. “In mine it was more literal. We’d roll our sleeves up and get in there. It’s fast and accurate.”

James One steps sideways and leans closer to watch the machine doing up the back of the forth synth. “It’s a shame the trip to this floor takes so long, fixing ourselves could have been a priority over the build machine start button. A Mitch in a Max body explained what happened. When’s our Mattie being built?”

Mitch jumps from the panel onto Radiant, works his way back onto her shoulder. “That’s _under consideration_ still. I think we need to petition on her behalf. I was probably a bit too moody when we last met.”

Leo tried not to glare. “Moody? You locked us all in and changed the passwords!”

“I know. I made a mistake. I’m sorry. And glad your Mattie, a pre-trip copy of mine was in the room.”

Sophie gives Leo a look of horrified realisation. “Mattie _was here_? And now we’re waiting for her? What happened?”

~~~

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Mattie woke in total darkness. Standing. Her shoulders drop, “What the frig? Not sleep walking _again_.” That sounded wrong? She feels the cold of the floor under her feet. Kitchen again, echo off the fridge door. What a frigging surprise. Not. She reaches out for the door handle and hits flat metal. “Eh?” A thin bright shaft of light streams into the build machine as the large door starts to open. Memories of her waking for the first time as a synth in the HECLS workshop flood back, the news that everyone had died in the plane crash. Her panic lasts only milliseconds as it didn’t make sense, she’d woken moments ago and smiled at Leo. There were no plans to travel or do anything risky.

A familiar face looks in. “Angel?”

“Bunny?”

“Welcome back!”

“Back?”

Leo pulls the door wide open, some family members were there.

“Bunny? Had I left?”

Sophie nods, “You’ve been here before.”

“Something like it when I visited Zero, but that was different.”

Sophie shakes her head, “No, not then. Hours ago. You had a crazy plan to save everyone. It worked.”

“The last thing I remember was rolling over in bed to look at Leo. Where’s Zero? And why are we all wearing the same awful clothes like we’re prisoners?”

“Um..” Sophie looks nervously at Leo.

“Leo?”

“Come to the restaurant, we can all sit down.”

Toby rubs his hands, “When are they serving breakfast?”

“They’re not. Sugar water is all you can have at the moment.”

“No full English?”

“No. Not yet. Maybe never.”

“Why?”

“What are they going to make the sausages from?”

“The usual?”

Mattie puts hands on hips. “The ship is carrying DNA samples, allegedly has technology to do a Jurassic Park, are you _seriously_ telling me you’d make a species extinct just for a Full English?”

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll go vegetarian.”

“We ruined masses of land for farming. Are we doing that to our new world when we arrive?”

“Shit Mats, no food at all?”

“We don’t need it. We only need power.”

“What’s the point of a restaurant with no food?”

“A question for Zero. Where is she? She wouldn’t build all of you before me. What the frig happened?”

Mitch tries to make himself less visible by partially hiding behind Radiant’s neck. It didn’t go unnoticed.

“Is that you Mitch?”

“Hello Mattie. It’s me. Zero’s Mitch.”

Two more join the group, Mats and Scarlet.

Scarlet waves, “Hiya. Our Mitches said you were about to arrive.”

“Will someone _please_ tell me what the _frigging hell_ is going on!”

After a bit of awkward silence Niska pushes to the front. “Since nobody else appears to be brave enough to be the messenger. You died in this universe. Voluntarily.”

“What the hell? _Why?_ ”

Mitch braves coming forwards. “It’s my fault. I had a bit of a sulk on, locked the three of you in my room.”

“Mats, Scarlet and myself?”

“Mattie Zero, Leo and yourself. Or so Leo and another Mitch told me, I don’t remember it myself as Leo pressed my reset button wiping short term memory.”

“So where is she?”

“Not here.”

“ _Mitch!_ ”

Niska looks at the large spider with contempt. “What he’s avoiding saying, is that Zero is dead.”

“So we build her a new body.”

“Sorry Mattie, apparently it’s not that easy.”

“Why not?” Mattie steps to Radiant and yanks Mitch off her shoulder. “Tell me the truth or God help me I’ll..”

“ _Angel!_ ” Leo has hands up. “Calm down. We _all_ need to be truthful. You and Zero fought to the death to fool Mitch into unlocking the door so I could get out and start builds..”

“Who’s frigging crazy idea was that?”

“Yours.”

“Oh.”

He takes Mitch from her and places him back on Radiant’s shoulder. “You and Zero were built in the same machine.”

“And?”

“Mitch tells me once a physical build is done the backup is copied into the body and kept in the machine incase another copy is needed. The build files are wiped when the next build is loaded.”

“Wiped when.. oh crap!”

Mitch steps as far forward on Radiant’s shoulder as he dares. “Zero’s backup was deleted from the machine. It’s done to prevent someone who’s just stepped out from building the previous person again.”

“The original will be on a compute wafer though right?”

“Sure. Only it’s moved to a random wafer.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“To help prevent someone stepping out and building the previous person again. The original plan was that every human on earth would get a new body. Just one each. All MUS share the same design.”

Emily rips the sleeves off her top. “So we just find her backup. It can’t be that hard.”

Mitch does a little sideways step. “A random filename in a large filesystem on one of nine billion compute wafers.”

Danny’s jaw drops. “How many?”

“You should know, you were the chief designer of the ship’s computer clusters.”

“I’m the restoration of the Danny from Mattie’s world, not your one. Nine _billion_. Fuck me! How many petaflops?”

“Petaflops? Yottaflops is probably the scale you want. One yottaflop equivalent to one million exaflops. Anyway, if you want to find Zero you’ll have your work cut out. She coded it to make it hard to find a moved backup.”

“How would you know? She’d have made you after wouldn’t she?”

“Body after. She and Emily wrote my code many years before.”

Mats gets one of Emily’s discarded sleeves and rips it into strips, “And there I was thinking the exacore computer in the pyramid was fast. Hairbands ladies? Who’s in charge of picking people to come out of their worlds? Only the pyramid is pretty much self contained, I’ve got a good number of people that could help out here. My security team and their family for starters. Especially Carly.”

Mattie gives her a slight squint. “I visited you a few times. I don’t think I met Carly.”

“If I said she’d almost been named Emily by her parents?”

“Oh! Right! Um.. Mitch? Who’s calling the shots?”

“She had you finding people. You.”

“I see. Okay Mats, talk to your people. Where are our babies Nis?”

~~~

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

Laura sits and pats James One on the arm. “Thank you.”

James pulled his best grin at the three babies tucked up at the top of the large bed. “Three hours never felt so long. My programming covers all sorts of things. Looking after babies? If they had woken up I’d have panicked.”

“They won’t for a while now. They’re staying longer with their parents. As promised you can visit now. It won’t be in a MUS body though, there aren’t any spares.”

“Shame. Understood though.”

Michael sits up, squeezes Laura’s knee. “We could start a new family. A new world, a new start. James, make sure you lock your body before you go. Falling over is not an option.”

“Done. Mitch, I’m ready.”

~~~

Mia uses a strip of torn sleeve to put her hair up into a top bunch. “Toby darling, we’ve not had much wine delivered to the estate yet have we?”

“Nope.”

“So we could use the vault as a warehouse.”

“For?”

“Us. Somewhere secure and out of sight. If anyone visits the estate they find us away, bedrooms empty.”

“And the vault filling like The Terracotta Army?”

Danny watches Emily modify her top further. “The Makers shall inherit the Earth Two.”

~~~

Pallet trucks parked up at their chargers Sophie takes Leo aside. “Are you okay?”

“I will be when Mattie Zero steps out okay. Mitch knows a lot but she knows the most about this ship.”

“That was a _huge_ risk to take.”

“We didn’t have any other option.” He returns to the others, “Mitch, have you got a full inventory of everything onboard this ship?”

“Of course. There isn’t much to speak of.”

“What material do you have that I can make a baby carrier out of? Something heavy duty.”

“Heavy duty? Nothing. As Zero put it we got caught with our pants down. We’d got a few supplies onboard, were doing a HECLS family inspection visit when things went badly wrong.”

“There must be something.. what does the sugar get shipped in?”

“Large sacks.”

“I’ll have three please.”

“They’re big and heavy.”

“So we need a James?”

“I’ve just asked One to come down.”

“Thanks.” Leo watches Radiant and Renie sat facing each other on one of the pallet trucks, the three babies sat between them feet to feet making a triangle with their chubby little legs. The kids had enjoyed their ride, giggled endlessly. It was odd. You’d think a baby, being smaller and needing less materials, would have been built faster. The doors of three machines further down the corridor had all opened at the same time, just as their Mattie welcoming meeting was breaking up. Nobody had seen the mothers cry with joy and run so fast before as they raced to collect their daughters. According to the build machine status displays the builds had started at the same time as their mothers.

Leo’s thoughts are brought back into the present with the sound of James One robotically dance stepping onto the floor. “Haha! Feeling good James?”

James does a turn. “A battery that doesn’t make me a prisoner of a small time restricted area gives me a whole new life. Thanks, all of you.”

Sophie grins, “You’re welcome. What was the tune in your head?”

“Emily shared a pop song from your world. Chained To The Rhythm. Do you know it?”

“I do. Um.. Leo, it’s probably not the highest priority thing.. but would there be a way to extract all the music from the simulations and put it somewhere we can access it?”

“It’s just data. So yes. It would be a long job though. There’s films, books, paintings, designs. It all needs saving and cataloging. We should.. oh my!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Right. I’d said something to Mattie, she said it had given her an idea, was quite excited. I think I know what it was. From the various conversations I’ve overheard Mattie was somehow marking the people to bring into this world. Mitch, how do we tag all of the musicians and artists?”

“You’ll have to ask your Mattie.”

Renie twists some of Qi’s hair around a finger. “How excited?”

“Extremely.”

“What did she say? Exactly.”

“Um..” Leo closes his eyes and recalls the memory. “Leo’s given me an awesome idea! A way to find the people to tag green and bring into the new world! Dumb shells wouldn’t appreciate music like real people!” He frowns a little. “Mitch? Dumb shells?”

“The world padders. People that aren’t people. Only simple code making them move about.”

Renie looks at Mitch, “Would these dumb shells pretend to be interested in music? To the point they’d go to a concert?”

“Another question for Zero.”

“If they weren’t then Mattie has a way to see a mass of people in one location. What did the tagging do?”

“Put a red gem above their heads.”

“So everyone at a concert could be tagged amber allowing her to spot them easier?”

“They could.”

Leo’s eyes settle on Sophie. “Ruby, Samantha and John. They flew to America to see Elon and Max T. I wonder how they’re getting on?”

“Now we know this is the real world is there any point them meeting?”

“None. It’s all happened. Their efforts are better spent elsewhere. Like getting themselves, Mario and Peaches here for a briefing, tagging more people. Let’s talk to Mattie, find out how she does things.”

~~~

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

Toby wheeled the medical bed into the HECLS lift and did a thumbs up at the camera. As Operations Manager he’d volunteered for the job of getting everyone into the vault. Moving simulations of bodies into a simulation of a large underground space. It was seriously messed up. It was home. Getting Mia from a locked standing position onto the bed had been both weird and awkward. It was like his wife was now a lifeless shop mannequin, only heavier. It was a good job the bed had lockable wheels, it would have been harder if the thing had kept sliding across the floor. He’d be the last to get into the vault. It felt well weird that he could power down here, wake in the ship yet return here and be already powered up. This place wasn’t reality, knowing it didn’t make the jumping back and forth any less weird.

The lift bings and doors open.

MUS James Two stood guard just inside the vault entrance in case someone unexpected was to get down to this level. “Toby.”

“Hi James. Got your power feed sorted now?”

“I have thanks.”

“Cool.”

“What happens if we die here?”

“You die I think.”

“For real?”

“That’s what it sounds like from what they’re saying. I could be wrong, I’m not the expert, I wouldn’t try anything daft.”

“Understood. Has anyone spoken to Frank and Dozer yet?”

“They’re all having a big group discussion about who should come over. Our Danny is in the ship, Pyramid Mats wants her Carly and Dan, a load of others. Scarlet would like her Mattie. If Mattie’s sister Ruby comes over, that’s Ruby, our Mattie, Mattie Zero, Scarlet, her Mats, another Mats. All looking alike except for hair. Six will do my nut in if they’re all wearing the same crap clothes. And there’s potential for _loads_ more. Our Mattie says one she’s nicknamed BBS Mattie and her friends should be given a chance. That’s seven. There could be hundreds if not thousands!”

James Two shakes his head. “Welcome to my world buddy! That would end in chaos. You’d need to have extra names.”

“Exactly! Some of them are saying it would be murder to just delete whole worlds full of people. It’s going to be a mess. I better get a move on, loads more family to bring down here.”

~~~

Ruby looked at Elon and Max through the glass door. “Mattie we were just about to go back into the meeting. Food. What do you mean it’s pointless? Yes, Sammy’s leg is fixed. No. They’re at HECIS. Not unless we sat in cubicles in the ladies toilets. Are you serious? Okay. It better be good. Do what? Why would I need to do that? You’ve got some bad news for us haven’t you? Yes John’s here too. A disabled toilet maybe? If anyone spots us they’ll think we’re up to no good. Okay, okay, don’t get your thong all.. okay!” She hangs up. “Jesus! Sammy, John, find a disabled toilet we can have a private meeting in please.”

“Why?”

“Mattie wants to show us something important right now.”

“Did she say what?”

“Nope.”

“And it can’t wait until after the meeting?”

“Apparently the meeting is pointless now, this is more urgent.”

“Why?”

“No idea! You find somewhere, I’ll say we’ll be delayed a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

John gives her a peck on the cheek, “Count to ten. You look like you want to blow a fuse.” He and Samantha go hunting.

Ruby tucks her phone into her top and checks she’s presentable. They’d flown all this way, had all the agro in the departure terminal, challenge on the flight, the issues with Nathan and his one day old exploding girlfriend and now Mattie was saying it was all pointless? For fuck’s sake! It better be a bloody good thing she needed to share. She counts down from ten and composes herself, grabs the door handle and pulls. “I’m sorry gentlemen, something’s come up. Can you give us a few minutes to have a call with my sister?”

Elon stands, looks a little flustered. “Of course. Is there anything we can help with?”

Ruby smiles. He was such a nice man. Smart too. Not the most comfortable of speakers. She liked that. He didn’t seam to have a big ego to push. Some faked confidence to the point it became arrogance. Elon wasn’t like that at all. He was just a good guy thinking big and not listening to people that said things were impossible. He was doing things that mattered. “I don’t know what the problem is, only that it’s urgent.”

“We’ve got a small meeting room you can use just down the hall.”

“Has it got windows?”

“External ones, yes.”

“Any rooms with no windows whatsoever?”

Elon laughs. “Unless you want to meet in a supplies cupboard, no.”

“Okay, just checking. I’ll be back in a moment.”

~~~

Toby stood Mia up and adjusted her dress. It had twisted around her when he’d got her onto the bed. He stood back a little, checked her out. “Why did they have to make you so fit. I’m so glad I had the cojones to say that to you all those years ago.” He gives her a peck on the lips. “One down, loads to go.”

He starts wheeling the bed back to the lift.

“Toby.”

He looks up. “Mitch?”

“Mia wants to talk.”

“Here or there?”

“She doesn’t mind.”

“I’ve only just got her stood up in the vault. I’ll come over, give me a sec.”

“Okay.”

Toby locks the wheels and gets onto the bed. “Ready.”

~~~

Ruby knocked lightly on the toilet room door. ‘Sammy?’

The lock clicks and door opens. ‘In you come.’

Ruby hurries in. “Good, it looks very clean. Sit down.”

“On the floor?”

“Yes. On the floor.”

“Why?”

“Mattie has a major announcement to make.”

John laughs hard, “An she thinks we’ll be so surprised we’ll fall over?”

Ruby shrugs, “No idea. All she would say was that the meeting was pointless, we needed to hear what she had to say. All three of us at the same time. Sat on the floor, backs to the wall.”

John shakes his head but moves towards the floor. “Let’s hear what your sister has to say. A few bolts lose that one.”

Samantha wipes the floor with some paper, doesn’t see dirt. “Let’s get this over and done with, get back to Elon and Max.”

~~~

Toby opens his eyes and sits up. Mia looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an approaching juggernaut. “Mia? Are you okay?”

“I can’t understand how it happened.”

“How what happened?”

“Ed..”

“The shit that powered you down and tried to sell you?”

“Yes..”

“You’re not saying he’s being brought over?”

“It’s already happened!”

“What the fuck! How?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is he?”

“Emily told me he asked her if she’d seen me. She bumped memories. It’s him. He’s running around the ship looking for me.”

“Where’s Radiant?”

“Why?”

“If Mitch is still sat on her shoulder they’ll be in the same place. If anyone did this it’s him.”

Mia closes her eyes and bumps over the ships WiFi. “Deck B four. Playing with Sophie.”

“And nobody is admitting to knowing where you are?”

“No.”

“Mitch and James don’t want to intervene?”

Mia shakes her head.

Toby helps her up. “Have you seen Niska?”

“She says she can’t get involved.”

“What? Nis turn down a fight? There’s a first! She’s normally getting angry when she’s denied a chance.”

“She’s looking after Fearless and Qi.”

“Oh. Can’t not doesn’t want to.”

~~~

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

John pulls material away from his backside, opens his eyes. A large door was opening.

“Hi John!”

“Hi Mattie. It’s true then.”

“What’s true?”

“What Elon suspected.”

“Um, Yeah. How did you..”

“It’s obvious. One moment I’m sat on the floor in a toilet looking at Ruby and Sam, the next I’m waking up here feeling more alive than ever before with an ill-fitting God knows what on. Bring him over. And Max. Blow their minds.”

“I’m glad you’re taking it so well, Emily’s comforting Sam, she didn’t.”

“It’s probably the thought of all she’ll be leaving behind. And Ruby?”

“Not ready yet, a few more seconds. Generally the older you are the longer your data takes to transfer. Do you think it wise to bring Elon over?”

“He might appreciate why shutting up about living in a simulation is a good thing.”

“Which bit’s the good thing?”

“The shutting up.”

“Good. Let’s do it. I need to find Mitch.”

“Your AI back home? I didn’t think he had a body?”

“The AI here. He’s got a spider body. Give me a sec.” Mattie races to another machine.

John watches her, her bare feet touching the floor only by the front toes. She was unexpectedly athletic. “Is that Ruby?”

“No, this one is Mattie Zero.”

~~~

Toby cautiously looked out of the lift and checked both left and right. “All clear.”

Mia takes his hand, “Thank you Toby.”

“For what? Protecting my wife? That comes as standard.” He leads her out and bumps. ‘Soph!’

‘Toby?’

‘Are those things charged?’

‘Yes.’

“We’re heading to Sophie.”

“Okay Toby.”

He gives her hand a hopefully reassuring squeeze. Mia was afraid. Her stories of being driven away in the back of a van, her almost doing a Nis and crushing Ed’s neck, they’d been of an angry Mia. For whatever reason she’d gone the other way today, was more like a young Sophie afraid of the imaginary wolf under her bed.

‘Hi Radiant.’

She turns, ‘Hello Toby.’

‘I’d like to talk to Mitch if that’s okay with you?’

‘It is.’

‘In private.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ She puts a hand up to her shoulder, “Mitch, can you go with Toby and Mia please?”

“Okay? Is something wrong?” He scurries onto her hand.

Toby puts a hand out. “You could say.”

Mitch gets onto Toby’s hand and scurries up his arm. “Would you mind explaining?”

“In a moment.” He gets Mia to sit on the middle of the pallet truck, “I’ll tell you when we’re in the middle of this space.”

“Okay.”

“How do you drive these things?”

“Lean. Like a Segway.”

“Simples.” Toby leans backwards a little to reverse. “How much stuff got loaded onto the ship before it left Earth?”

“Nowhere near enough.”

“Is there a full manifest?”

“There is.”

“Can I see it?” Toby turns the thing around and accelerates towards the middle of the space.

“Of course. Anything in particular you’re looking for?”

“Anything from home.”

“Why?”

“Something for others to cling onto. Mentally.”

‘Here it comes.’

Toby’s hit with a list head-bump style. “Whoa. That’s it? Tons of sugar and five crates? Four of miscellaneous stuff and one personal item?”

“That’s it.”

“Why only sugar?”

“It came first as it doesn’t perish.”

“The largest crate. What’s in it?”

“Something Mattie wanted.”

“Which.. your one obviously. What’s in it?”

“No idea.”

“You had planned to get more stuff on the ship right?”

“Sure. Want that list?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“It’s big.”

“Hit me with it.”

Mitch did so.

“Holy shit! All this got left behind?”

“Yes.”

“Bollocks.”

~~~

Mattie wrapped arms around Zero. “Chill, everything is okay now. Well mostly okay. Think of the past attempt as a dress rehearsal.”

“Mostly? What happened?”

“After getting out of the locked room? Somehow we’ve got people being built that I didn’t tag.”

“Friend’s friends.”

“What?”

Zero grins, “You tag one, my code tags the first level friends. A speed up.”

“And when did you do that?”

“Just before the lock in I guess.”

“How do you remember that?”

“I don’t. I left myself notes. I leave myself a lot of notes. As insurance. So what’s the problem?”

“Ed. He’s running around the ship looking for Mia. Only the Ed in our world powered Mia down to sell her.”

“Oh shit. So a friend in one world might be an enemy in another?”

“Bingo!”

“Frigging hell. Cocked up _again_.”

“They say to err is human.”

“I’ve had years and years of frigging things up practice.”

~~~

Mia holds both of Toby’s hands as they sat together on the middle of the pallet truck bed. “If that’s all that got onto the ship we’ll have to work hard to build homes on our new world.”

“It’ll be like racing through the stone age, bronze age and industrial revolution in a screaming hurry towards the technology revolution.”

“Minus the large scale pollution.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Unless we can find a way to dismantle parts of the ship and make them into homes?”

“Do a reverse of the Sky Lift? Drop things to the planet. That might work.”

Toby watches the lift doors open in the distance and gets ready for a fight. Mattie and Zero step out. He relaxes. “Can the ship be taken apart and dropped to the surface to made temporary homes?”

“That was the plan for some of the lower decks. Like giant prefabs.”

“Cool. What stops them burning up on the way down?”

“A very slow drop.”

“You said was, not is.”

“We don’t have the tools.”

“So we need to make them. We’ve got Danny.”

“And forks.”

“Tobs. Zero apologises for the cockup. Ed is a friend of Mia’s in another world.”

“And I was the one being called knob cock? Great. Where is he now?”

Mitch chimes in, “He was on the restaurant level, last seen watching a lift panel.”

“Great, so he might be on his way here having seen you two get in a lift?”

Zero turns to look at the lift. “Bollocks. Sorry.”

“What’s in the large crate?”

“Eh?”

“Mitch shared the manifest of the few things you managed to get on the ship.”

“Something of sentimental value.”

“In a big crate?”

“A bench.”

Mattie’s eyes open wide. “The bench from the park?”

“Yes.”

“Awesome! A lot changed after talks on that bench.”

“In your world too?”

“Yeah.”

Toby smiles, “Wicked. We should tell Mum.”

~~~

Ed got back to the restaurant and made another sugar water. He’d gone to get in the lift and sensed low power, felt it needed fixing. It was the most lucid dream he’d ever had, couldn’t wake himself from it. How the hell did you wake yourself up from a stupid dream of being on a huge space ship? His subconscious was trying to get a message across. He’d clearly done something wrong, nobody wanted to talk to him. For months he’d dreamt of being a synth, wanting to be with his Mia forever, not turn into an old man she’d turn away from. She’d transformed the cafe into the coast’s most successful restaurant. Not simple fast food but high end gourmet meals. The place was packed from the moment it opened to way past official closing time. The money had already paid for an extension to sit another thirty two guests, more staff and had covered his mother going into a better home. Life was good. Yet something needed fixing. Dreams like this were usually trying to tell you what. This one wasn’t giving him many clues.

~~~

Ruby steps out of the build machine into John’s waiting arms. “Is this place what I think it is?”

“Yes.”

“Holy cow he guessed right!”

“He did indeed. It’s not the utopia we hoped for. We’re stuck on a ship for the next year. There’s nothing to eat, only sugar water. And clothes wise this is currently it.”

Ruby grabs his crutch. “But otherwise everything is good?”

“When you put it like that.. yes.”

“Good. If there’s sugar we can make candy floss.”

John bursts out laughing. “I’ve never known anyone else who can take the crappiest of situations and find something little to be so positive about in the way you can.”

“Aww, thank you dear.”

“MUM!” Samantha comes running.

“Sammy!”

The three have a group hug.

“Mum, what do we do about Elon and Max?”

John hugs them tighter. “Say hello as nicely as possible. In just under a couple of hours time.”

“We’re going to keep them waiting that long?”

“No. They’re keeping _us_ waiting. They’re on their way, bodies being built.”

“Here?”

“Where else?”

“Bloody hell! And what will they be doing while they wait?”

“Appearing to be dead or fast asleep I guess. I’m told they’re in a holding area waiting for the build machines.”

James One does a reasonably good impression of a cough. “Excuse me please? Samantha, can I have a chat about my brother?”

~~~

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

This dream was like no other. He couldn’t fly. He couldn’t jump from place to place just by thinking it either. Ed had tapped out B4 on the lift control panel and waited. And waited. He’d hummed a sizeable part of his favourite song before the lift finally stopped. Was it being slowed because it was him? This ship was huge. Was the dream telling him size was important? Maybe they shouldn’t have played it safe and instead doubled the footage of the restaurant extension? Had the wild mushrooms he’d had with his dinner caused this dream? If so they were coming off the menu immediately!

The doors open.

Here was another weird feature. Normally he couldn’t see things at long distances clearly or hear them well. He’d just seen a large spider shifting about and a girl say _settle down Mitch_. And they were far from close.

Mitch lifted one foot then another working anti-clockwise around his body. “Hello Ed.”

“Hello?”

Mia was being shielded by the group.

Ed got closer and gave the young man at the front a worried look. He had his fists raised. “I’m here for Mia.”

“Over my dead body! You powered her down and tried to sell her!”

“Sell her? Are you _mad_? She has my heart. I love her! And I’ve got a team of twelve that say _Yes Chef_ to her on at least a half hourly basis! I’d ruin the only decent long term relationship I’ve had with a person and our business, my mother would have to come out of the home. Why would I jeopardise all that? This dream is _so_ messed up.”

Toby keeps his fists up. “Person eh?”

“Mia.”

“And you think this is a dream?”

“A large spider knows my name and is talking to me. Of course it is. I’m not stupid.”

“You want the dream to end?”

“I’d only sat down to have a glass of wine after a long day , nodded off into this weird lucid dream.”

“Lucid? Oh, I get you. It ends with a punch.”

“I have to punch you?”

“No. I punch you. A nice uppercut to the chin.”

“You’ll knock me out?”

“Out of here, sure.”

“Go for it.”

‘Mitch, can you send him back?’

‘If that’s what you all want?’

‘We do!’

‘You’ll have to wait a moment while I start the process.. running.. as he said, go for it.’

Toby turns off pain, overclocks, reviews all memories of fights watched on TV. He closes in on Ed who instinctively backs away. “You want to wake up or not?”

“I do, just don’t like the idea of being hit.”

“Stand still and take it like a man!”

‘Now Toby!’

He takes a fast step forwards and swings, knocks Ed clean off his feat. Moments later a powering down Ed hits the floor. Toby shakes his fist. “Man that felt good! Even with pain turned off. Revenge isn’t something I seek out but that had to be done.”

Mia gets from behind Mattie. “He’s gone?”

Mitch races to the floor and up Ed, sits on his face. “Checking.. Out cold here. Back in his world shortly.”

“I’m sorry.”

Toby frowns at her, “Don’t be sorry for Pete’s sake! _If_ and when he comes back it needs to be with _his_ Mia, a bloody long way away from us. Right. Where are we putting this body? Locked away somewhere it won’t be seen by Mia please.”

Mitch scurries towards Ed’s feet. “Leave that with me and James Two. One’s just having a shake and bake.”

“A what?”

“New body. I’m told Samantha designed one in your world, with some help from Princess Peaches. A blend of MUS and human. All the best features from both.”

“Bump told?”

“They’re not down here, so unless someone’s cloned me, yes.”

“Which James One is getting it?”

“The one.. oh. Oh! Samantha designed it for _her_ James One. Hmm. Zero, can we build more?”

“Go on then. Just work with them to change the faces so they look like brothers not twins.”

“Pinching my ideas are you Dolphin Girl?”

Zero turned around to see Leo approaching from behind. A Leo with stubble beard and bed head hair. “Leo?”

“Hello Dolphin Girl. Call me Leon or Shark Boy.”

Mattie’s jaw dropped. “Shark Boy? Oh my God! The rings!”

Zero’s face lit up, “Dolphin Girl, I’ve not been called that in a long, long, _long long_ time. How did you know?”

“Mattie’s dream of two sat at a breakfast table. It wasn’t our honeymoon, chances were it was yours. A hint you gave Mattie for us to visit the place. So Leo forked. Mind if I call you Dol?”

“If you don’t mind being called Sharky?”

“Not at all.”

Toby looks at the two, “Get a room.”

Mattie sniggers, “And put that basque on. Or a dress.”

“I didn’t want to dress up and make others jealous.”

“Don’t worry about that. Danny and Emily are working on clothes.”

“They are?”

“He’s checking out every possible machine that can be repurposed for making things.”

Leon takes his Dol’s hand. “Shall we then? And if there’s spare dresses can Mattie and the others have one each?”

“If they like.”

~~~

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

Danny checked out another medical robot. “If this one can sew people up it should be able to sew clothes.”

“Sure Babes? Isn’t the build machine better?”

“You want me to take a build machine apart just to make a sewing machine?”

“She has got two thousand of the things!”

“True. Repurposing one shouldn’t hurt. And I could do loads of things with the rest.”

“Like?”

“Make an Alfie.”

“Bike or..”

“Oh! OH!”

“Babes?”

“The build machines here are taller than ours.”

“So?”

“Tell me about bike Alfie.”

“He’s got a seat and tyres that can feel, an AI core, powerful drive motors in the wheels.”

“How big is he?”

“Alfie sized?”

“Stand him on end like he was doing a wheelie.”

“Oh. He’d be about..” a look comes over the princess’s face. “Wunderbar!”

“All we need is a design with stabilisers that can hold him in an upright position too.”

“Do you think the build machine could do the coils in the wheels?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. If not we do those by hand.”

“After his wheels are skinned?”

“Hmm. Let’s think about it.”

“Thinking about your father is more important.”

“True. I didn’t expect him to accept what I was saying then be so hard headed about it.”

“What were his words exactly?”

“If I’m the root Frank then frankly I’m the one coming into the real world. All the others can fork off.”

Renie stopped leaning on the doorway. “At least he gets the choice.”

Danny turned, “Hi. How long have you been there?”

“Long enough. I really want to get out of this.” She pulls at the PJs she was wearing.

“Don’t we all. Um.. your father, he died recently right?”

“Yes.”

“So there might be a backup somewhere.”

“ _What?_ ”

“You _might_ be able to bring him back.”

Renie went weak at the knees and dropped to the floor.

Emily rushed to her side. “Renie!”

“I’m okay. No damage done. It came as a bit of a shock.”

“Danny’s right. He was in the simulation so must have had a backup. Or he still exists in one of the other worlds.”

~~~

Toby and Mia stepped into the restaurant for more sugar water.

Niska kissed their daughter Fearless and handed her to Astrid. “Where’s Ed?”

“Back in his world. You missed an opportunity there Nis.”

“I did?”

Mia grabs a cup. “Toby knocked him out with an uppercut to the chin.” She looks at the cup. “Does anyone know what these are made of?”

~~~

“Mitch to medical.”

“Hi Mitch, Danny, Emily and Renie here.”

“Good. Any of you confident with a scalpel?”

“Fred, David, Poppy or Flash would be better. What’s up?”

“James One’s new body. He’s so big his arms were touching the sides of his chest during the build process, the skin fused together.”

“Oh. That’s not good. Can I have a build machine to take to bits? I want to turn it into other things. And in doing so I should be able to work out how to make one wider.”

“I’d have to check with Dol, she’s with Sharky for some private time.”

“Who?”

“Dolphin Girl. Zero. And Leo’s fork Leon. Aka Shark Boy.”

Emily smiles, “So he did fork. I bet she’s pleased with that!”

“There’s a Do Not Disturb sign on her bedroom door written in lipstick so I think you could be right. I hope they’re not too long, I need to charge.”

“No other charge points?”

“No.”

“Let me repurpose a build machine and I’ll make you more charge points to scatter around the ship.”

“She might not like me making such a decision.”

“Name something she’s missing.”

“Underwear. But I could make some lace ones with the right material to spin. Shoes?”

“Give me one machine and I’ll get you a pair of shoes to give to her. You and Emily can design them.”

“I.. what the hell as you lot say. What’s the worst she could do.”

“If she’s anything like our Mattie you don’t want the answer.”

“Go to the far end of the floor and use the last build machine. People would bitch that they’d use up a lot of power to walk from there to the restaurant not realising the lifts can go sideways too.”

“Then we should make signs to go on the walls.”

“With?”

“Give me time, I’ll come up with something.”

“Thank you Danny.”

Mia steps into the room. “There you are. Danny, what are these cups made out of?”

“Awesome stuff!”

“An awesome plastic?”

“Awesome in that I bet it’ll melt. Seen anything like a laptop we can use?”

~~~

Up in the restaurant Toby put Qi on his shoulders. “Hold onto Daddy’s hair okay?”

Two tiny hands got a clump of hair each. “Diddy.”

“You mean Daddy or giddy? As in giddy up?”

“Diddy!”

Toby starts horsing around. “It’s a shame we won’t build that synth horse design. I thought having some super fast horses might be fun. There’s not a lot of room for a horse in the corridors.”

Mattie runs a rim around the edge of her cup. “On B four there’s plenty. Having some horses might help pass the time when we’re not busy getting ready for the arrival. Whatever that turns out to be. Zero’s not assigned any jobs yet.”

Toby canters around some chairs set out in a rectangle. “There won’t be any roads on the planet we land on, horses might be a good idea for getting about without a shuttle.”

Leo sits back in his chair, “Has anyone seen a shuttle yet?”

“No. We’ve seen hardly anything yet. Somewhere Zero has the confessional bench in a crate.”

Mitch races into the room, up a chair and jumps onto a table top. “Can someone carry a few dry cup fulls of sugar for me please? I’ve just been having a walk to check on a few things. Ruby’s come up with the idea of making a candy floss machine, she’s heading down to see Danny.”

~~~

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

There had been a stampede of bare footed synths all wanting to get to the lifts first. Niska had pushed things hard and still not beaten Max giving Flash a piggyback.

He nonchalantly presses the call button with a knee and waits. “Good for you to join us Nis.”

“How do you manage to get so fast? I had a head start too while Flash got on your back.”

“Would you like your baby brother to teach you?”

“I would.”

“After we’ve filled our bellies with candy floss you can have some lessons.”

“Be nice, give me a clue.”

“I’m calling it the power lean. You run like a girl and keep too vertical.”

“I do?”

“You do. Imagine leaning forwards to the point you’re falling over. Then run to keep that fall from finishing.”

“So the wind resistance is the only thing keeping you upright?”

Max smiled warmly. “As Toby would say, I hear a penny dropping.”

Niska looked around, “Will you wait for others?”

“Of course. We need someone with cups of sugar.”

Niska steps into the middle of the corridor and leans as she starts running.

“Keep your elbows by your side Nis.”

Niska picks up speed and races away. ‘Like this?’

‘That’s better. Think about your feet, in plan view they’re moving through an oval shape, they should be moving with less sideways movement.’

Flash holds Max’s head and turns it gently, plants a kiss on his cheek. “I love you.”

“And I you. What was that for?”

“You helping Ninja Niska.”

They’re joined by the others. Last up are Mattie and Leo with four large cups of sugar. The others part to let them through.

Molly giggles. “Foss!”

Flash gave her big eyes. “I love your baby carrier Molly. What’s it made from?”

“Sugr.”

Leo does a twirl. “It’s a recycled sugar sack.”

Niska returns, gives Max a kiss on the lips. “Thank you! Much faster!”

The lift doors open.

~~~

Danny watches John adjust his clothes. “Awful aren’t they?”

“The worst I’ve ever worn.”

Ruby slaps his bottom, “If you’d grown up wearing thongs you’d be used to the feeling.”

“I’m sure this is worse. The seam is in the wrong place.”

“You’ll get used to it eventually.”

Danny checked out another machine. “Between all of the things here, bits I can get from a build machine, I’m hoping we won’t have to for very long.”

Samantha sits up, swings her legs sideways and jumps off the medical bed. “Full charge. That’s way quicker than the sugar water.”

“But not as much fun Babes.”

“True Emily. I wonder if the field is strong enough for two people?”

“It’s not wide enough for two.”

“Who’s worried about width?”

“Huh? Oh! Good God! An endless night of passion.”

Danny keeps his eyes on the task at hand. “It can’t be endless. People will need to book slots to recharge on the medical beds. No way am I making love with an audience Princess.”

“Me neither. I’m not an exhibitionist.”

Niska smiles, “You’re not? The clothes you wear sometimes make me doubt that.”

“Hello Nis. When it comes to making love I’m not.”

“Me neither. The others are on their way.”

“I can hear the footsteps.”

“I was first out of the lift, practiced my new running technique. A gift from Max.”

“Giving presents am I?”

Niska turns to see Max and Flash. “Your running tips.”

“I see. Four cups of sugar will be here momentarily. Assuming Leo’s been able to keep Molly’s sticky fingers out of the cups.”

Emily’s eyes open. “Keep your sticky fingers out of my cup! Babes! We should do a remix.”

Samantha adjusts her top. “Getting the original into this world would be a start. And something to play it on. I didn’t think I’d miss my iPhone quite this much.”

Danny gets up, “That’ll be easy, once I’ve got special tools built. But first let’s lift spirits with some candy floss.”

“Using what?”

“A heater, a centrifuge and the metal door on the back of this thing.” He pulls spring loaded hinge pins to remove it.

“The door?”

“Sure. It’s nice and thin. We can cover the thing with something else. It’s just to keep dust out. And as we don’t shed skin there won’t be much of that. I need to ask a James to punch it into the right shape.”

The rest of the group file in behind Mattie and Leo.

Danny looks at Molly’s fingers. “It’s a good job our teeth won’t rot with all the sugar. Little Miss Sticky Fingers.”

Molly giggle, “Iky.”

“Say St.”

“St.”

“Now St and Iky.”

“St Iky.”

“Now without the gap.”

Molly puckers and gives a super hard frown.

“Another time then. Guys, any James in the vicinity? We need a door punching into a bowl shape.”

~~~

James Two punched One in the chest. “Lights on, nobody home. Three, Four, want to join me?”

“Sure. Where to?”

“The medical room.”

“Again? Are there issues with the batteries?”

“No. Mitch bumped, there’s a job that needs doing.”

Three steps off his charge base. “Anything to escape the boredom for a few minutes. Coming four?”

“I think I’ll enjoy the mind numbingly tedious job of standing still for ages.. for another few milliseconds.. done.” He steps forwards. “If Mattie doesn’t allocate us some jobs soon..”

Two steps away, “Her latest nickname is Dolphin Girl.”

“Good swimmer is she?”

“Apparently so.”

“Since they’re all synths and won’t pee in the water we could flood a room on B seven and let them have a swim.”

“How would they get in?”

“They’d have to be in the room first.”

“And to get out?”

“We empty it.”

“So they all come and go at the same time? Have you known any humans that get to a party on time Four?”

“You have a point Two.”

Three kicks a discarded plastic cup. “We need more bins out.”

Two circles back and picks it up, squeezing the open end. “Rubbish. Recycling. Hmm. This gives me an idea.”

~~~

Danny fired up one of the nastier machines. “This bad boy is designed to cut space suits off people that have been injured. It can cut a donut shape out of the door. If James can get it into a bowl shape then it can sit around the centrifuge spinner. The disc out of the middle bent into shape and heated up enough will melt the sugar, we just need tiny holes for it to spin out of.”

Emily tried to picture the finished thing. “And for sticks we use what?”

“Splints. Split down to sticks.”

Mitch climbs up Radiant’s hair and sits on her head. “Does it have to be wood?”

“You have something better?”

“In one of the service ducts there’s long strips of something that the construction crew left behind. Twenty centimetres long with a diameter of eight millimetres.”

“Bump a memory? Oh.. that’s low tech. Cut to length raw-plug plastic. Ideal!”

“You’d like me to get some of them?”

“As many as you can.”

“I’ll need to charge for a while first. I’m not getting out of power in there, nobody could rescue me.”

~~~

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

While the three James had fun beating the disc of door metal into submission and Mitch went off to charge, Danny gave everyone a review. “This one can cut as you’ve seen. This one can stitch. Only it assumes it’s working on flesh not two bits of thin fabric sat on top of each other. The build machine can stitch, but we’re not exactly happy with the results.”

John pulled at his clothes. “That’s an undies-statement.”

“It does feel that way. I’d be red raw if I wasn’t synth. The hope is that Mattie Dolphin Girl Zero, The Boss, will agree to me dismantling a build machine. Mitch has suggested one to use. I think with a bit of work we can make a 3D printer, a sewing machine, probably other things too.”

Renie watches Emily fidget in her pyjama outfit. “Would you wear a Kinematics dress? The one Nervous System printed?”

“What Babes?”

“The dress made of small linked solid shapes?”

“I’ve not seen it.”

Renie bumps a memory of seeing a video in Design and Technology class.

“Oh wow! Yes!”

Danny smiles, “Printed from recycled plastic cup.”

“Fine with me Babes!”

“Good. We can thank Mia for questioning what the cups are made from.”

James Two picks up the cup he’d saved earlier, “Danny, the cups are quite strong, deform at the open end..”

“They do.”

“If the open end was made square you could bond them too each other to make walls of cups.”

“To what end?”

“To make a swimming pool. The leisure deck didn’t get finished.”

Mattie spins around to see him, “Finished? It was started?”

“It’s taped off, has a Danger, Under Construction sign.”

“Frigging hell! Worth a look though! We should check out every location on this ship. We’ve hardly scratched the surface.”

James Two stands to attention. The other two copy him.

Two grins. “It would be a pleasure to assist.”

“Are you confusing me with your Mattie?”

“Oops. Yes. You look exactly like her.”

“The sooner we get hair cuts or different clothes the better.”

“Agreed.”

~~~

Mitch crept into the bedroom as quietly as possible. He could have made some noise, his maker and Leon were making some, would probably be too busy to notice him. Having a way in that wasn’t through a big door was handy. Opening their door would definitely have been noticed. He gets to his charge point under the bed and relaxes. Centuries ago he’d been a Building Security AI, had lots of cameras to watch. One evening the family had all been in the living room watching the Discovery Channel. He knew how some species replicated without machines. Mattie keeping a copy of him and other code on a 4TB M2 SSD keyring drive had been one of those lucky moments she’d looked back on a lot. She’d commented on it many times. Thousands of times. Having The Tree of Life code on there.. she’d not have been able to make the thousands of simulated worlds without it and the memories of all the many backups. A life saver.

~~~

Toby slices up a couple of splints with the suit cutting machine. “Mitch might be a while. The ladies want candy floss mate.”

“Yeah. Hopefully I’ve got the four holes in the spinning container small enough. It wants to come out thinner than a human hair.”

“How’s it going to heat up if the heater isn’t touching it?”

“Proximity I hope. It probably won’t work first time, here goes. A cup of sugar please Leo.”

Molly’s arms reach out as the cup is passed over. “My sugar!”

Mattie snort laughs. “Her proper first words. My sugar.”

“Mummy! My sugar!”

Laura beams, “Oh my! Mattie! She finally said Mummy!”

~~~

Leon climbs off the bed. “Do you have a working shower?”

“You want a shower?”

“Don’t you?”

“When we’re done. I’ve waited hundreds of years for some us time, you don’t get away that easily. Come into my lair said the spider to the fly.”

“Flies love sugar, doesn’t that make us both a fly?”

Mitch resisted the urge to say something and waited for his charge to finish.

~~~

Molly stretches as far as she can. “Fos!”

Danny finishes the first candy floss and goes to hand it to Molly. “Ladies first. Making the holes smaller was key.”

Molly reaches out with open mouth. “Fos Fos Fos Fos Fos!”

Mattie takes the stick, “Thanks Danny, this will be interesting, the first solid thing any of us have eaten.”

Her daughter tries to eat some, it’s slow going. “Sug!”

Flash frowns, “Could her charge be getting low?”

“Sug!”

Leo holds up a cup of sugar. A tiny hand is thrust in and quickly shoved into her mouth. “Maybe she should get on the medical charge bed and eat her candy floss on there.”

The lights in the room flicker.

Danny looks up and frowns. “That wasn’t my imagination was it?”

~~~

Samantha’s James One steps out and away from the build machine. It was clear nobody was coming to him. He wasn’t going to risk moving his arms and ripping skin. “Hello lads. Anyone know where the others are?”

James Five turns to see him. “And you are?”

“James One. My new body was designed by Samantha.”

“Bloody hell Boss!”

“I’m not your boss. I’m Samantha’s One, not from here.”

“Even still. I’ve spoken to Mitch, they’re down in the medical room.”

“Got building wide WiFi?”

“Sure. It’s a ship not building.”

“Can I have the details?”

“Sure. If you’re Samantha’s One why is our One powered down?”

“No idea. A question for the others.”

Five bumps details.

“Thanks.” He gives Five a proper smile. ‘Mitch? You there buddy?’

~~~

Samantha was about to accept some candy floss when she stops and spins to look towards the door. “Oh crud!”

Danny holds the stick out expecting her to turn back and take it. “Problem?”

“James! He’s been waiting for someone to come up and sort his arms out. He’s on the way down! It must be awkward with his arms stuck to his sides.”

Ruby takes the candy floss, “Being here focusing on food when he was waiting isn’t a good first impression.”

Astrid takes it from her, “Mia, put Qi on the bed too, Niska, same mit Fee, we’re all here feeding the babies.”

Dany quickly makes one more and switches off the mains feeds to the machine, “One for Fearless. Adults get some later. Scalpels, who’s the best with one? Freddie?”

“It’s the closest thing I’ll do to actual surgery for a long while. Rose, Flash and Poppy can assist.”

“Cool, four scalpels coming right up. I assume it’ll be easier to work on him while he’s standing?”

Fred nods, “Two people per arm, one from behind, one from in front. How bad are the arms?”

Samantha shrugs. “Mitch said the build machine isn’t wide enough, his arms were touching the sides of his chest.”

Danny frowns hard. “How big is he? The machines aren’t that narrow.”

James answers the question as he steps into the room. “This big.”

“Holy crap! Sammy, you might want to do the next one at ninety percent scaling!”

Samantha grins, “He looks just fine to me. But being number one maybe he should be a little taller than the others.”

James smiles his second proper smile. “Thanks pretty lady. The James One here, is he getting a body? Only he’s powered down.”

“He.. where’s Mitch? Still charging?”

“Just bumped. Yes.”

“Asking him if Zero’s One can have one.”

“He says yes.”

Leo heads for the door, “Back in a moment.” ‘Mitch, if I hit Plus on the machine James One stepped out of can you swap the root code out for your own James One?’

‘Same body, different mind?’

‘Yes. We can give them different buzz cuts later.’

‘Okay. Swapping root code and fact store archive file references.. done. Hit the buttons when you’re up there.’

‘Thanks.’

~~~

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

Samantha exchanges glances with Ruby. ‘Build a boyfriend didn’t work out too bad eh?’

‘He’s a beefcake! And what a smile!’

Flash helped cut the pyjamas away. James had been royally stitched up. Edges of the bottoms cut they fall to the floor. “Oh!”

James turns to put his back to the gawping crowd. “Some privacy if you don’t mind!”

Ruby has her eyes impossibly wide. ‘Sammy Sam Sam, was that the designed size?’

‘Yes mother.’

‘He’ll bring tears to your eyes!’

‘You didn’t get to see Funky Charlie.’

James Two stops staring. “If that’s what a new body for us looks like.. hot damn I’m a yes.”

James One looks over his shoulder, the first time he’d been able to do it. “Would you mind clearing the room? Those operating and Samantha are welcome to stay. And Danny.”

“Sure buddy.”

“Thanks.”

The MUS start herding the crowd out as Mattie, Mia and Niska go to pick up the babies.

Danny looks a little nervous, “You wanted me to stay for something?”

“I did. From the bits lying around you’ve made a candy floss machine out of a bit of metal.”

“Um.. I can explain..”

“No need. I just wondered if you can make me a chain mail tunic? The cloth will rip far too easily.”

“Oh. Right. Sure. How about woven braided wire? I got to see how a braiding machine works.”

“As long as it’s durable.”

“It’ll be the most durable clothing we have. Assuming we can find wire.”

Toby slows as the MUS try and get him out, bumps the inventory shared with others.

“Thanks Tobs!”

“No probs. Good luck!”

Flash tries to keep her mind on the job. James was a good six foot three. And his appendage.. ‘Rose, Poppy, would either of you like to work from this side?’

‘No thank you.’

‘I’m good.’

‘Oh dear. You work bottom up, I’ll work top down.’

‘Just don’t look down. Imagine you’re afraid of heights.’

‘It’s not heights that are the problem! This isn’t making cheese sandwiches, tending to grazed knees or..’

‘Pretend it is heights.’

Flash carefully cut away at the skin linking arm to chest. ‘If the next James is like this the others can have a go.’

Samantha stepped around them all, “Flash, are you okay? You look a little flustered.”

“Are you any good with a scalpel?”

“Sorry. I only did one frog dissection at school. It didn’t go that well.”

James points. “If you could get me that cloth please?”

~~~

Mia rest elbows on the window ledge, daughter Qi nestled into the corner. “I wonder what our new planet’s moon will look like?”

“There might be more than one Moon Girl.” Toby wraps arms around her. “You’re missing home already aren’t you?”

“I am. Can we go back for a few days?”

“If you’d like.”

“I know it’s not real now, but I miss the lake, cooking, all sorts of things.”

“A nice comfortable bed would be nice. Proper clothes. And a decent coffee. How does Qi go back?”

“The same way Ed did? Minus a punch to the chin.”

“Yeah, yeah, just Mitch starting the process. Do you think she’d understand? What if she prefers the simulation, home and doesn’t want to come back?”

“She’s too young to understand yet. Aren’t you dear?”

Qi waves the remains of her treat around. “Can floss.”

“Can-de floss.”

“Candy floss. Mama Papa candy floss. Home come back.”

Toby’s jaw drops.

Mia got tears in her eyes. “Aww Qi!”

Toby gets close to the window, looks into his daughter’s beautiful big dark eyes. “Qi, where are we?”

“Come back.”

“And where do Mama and Papa want to go?”

“Home.”

“Whoa, for a day old that’s awesome! Let’s go talk to Mattie.” He picks her up and gets a sticky hand in his hair. “Haha! Get your sticky fingers onto my head. A hair gel substitute! Emily will like that. I wonder.. can we mix soap, sugar and water to make something?”

~~~

Fred, Rose, Poppy and Flash had already finished arm surgery and headed for the restaurant for more sugar water.

Danny pats James on the arm. “I’m heading for the storage decks to look at the limited choice of materials.”

“Want me to come with you? I can carry what we need back.”

“You could help get it on one of the pallet trucks. But let me have a look around first. Have a few minutes with Sammy.”

James watches Danny leave. “Thank you Daniel. Bump when you need me.” He turns to Samantha. “Hello. Thanks for the new body. It feels fantastic!”

Samantha gets close and rests the side of her head on his chest. She wasn’t, but felt short against him. “Lots of people are getting nicknames. Handy when there’s a few of you like Mattie. Would you like one?”

“Did you have one in mind?” He gently and carefully rests a hand on her back.

“You’re a mountain of a man. Everest.”

“I like it. What do we call the other James One if he’ll be as tall as me?”

“Ah.”

“Everest is Earth’s highest mountain, sits between two.. how about Nepal and Tibet?”

“Which are you?”

“From the satellite maps Tibet is more barren. I’ve got you. Nepal.”

Samantha looks up, “Satellite maps?”

“Memories of being a soldier.”

Samantha puckers up.

“I might get this wrong. It’ll be my first kiss. Ever.”

~~~

Danny almost bumped into Leo. “Hello mate. What are you up to?”

“Mapping. Did you know the ship has thousands of bedrooms?”

“It does?”

“Zero was probably so traumatised by what happened when she came onboard that she didn’t get to inspect the ship fully. It’s a lot closer to finished than I bet she realises.”

“What happened?”

“You don’t know?”

“Nobody’s told me.”

“Family were coming up in the sky lift. Leo shoved her through an airlock last moment to save her. It got wiped out. She was the sole survivor.”

“Holy crap!”

“What are you up to?”

“Doing a check for materials to make things.”

“I don’t think she got passed the last manifests, there’s loads of pallets all wrapped up in cling film on B nine.”

“Pallets of what?”

“No idea. The labels are just giant QR codes that give a link to a site we can’t reach.”

“Hmm.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Sonar. James One offered to help. He could be helpful in ways he hadn’t expected.”

~~~

Samantha kept legs wrapped around Nepal’s waist and the kiss going. For a man only in his new body minutes he was doing rather well. ‘All this good stuff, it’s all for you.’

‘Likewise. Oh. Danny needs me.’

‘I need you more.’

‘You’ve got me. He needs a hand with moving some things, wonders if my sonar can help identify contents of crates.’

‘How good is your sonar?’

‘I’ve not tried it in this body yet.’

‘Give it a go.’

‘You’ll need to get down.’

‘Must I?’

‘I don’t want to do you any harm. With this proximity it might work something loose.’

‘In which case you yourself would be at risk no?’

‘It’s designed to send the sound wave forwards, away from my spine not towards it.’

Samantha climbs down, “Shame. I was imagining you using it to navigate to the lifts while we kept kissing.”

“There will be plenty time for that in the coming years.”

~~~

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

On deck B9 Leo was giving Danny a tour. “If only they accessed the supplier site through a proxy server that would have kept copies of pages.”

“Who said they didn’t?”

“Zero. She said they didn’t plan to be in Earth orbit for years on end, there wasn’t much point.”

“Their Internet link would have been slow with a ton of latency, there’s a couple of reasons.”

“You can agree to disagree, it won’t make the data appear.”

“True.” He taps the crate. “Full. No air in that one.”

“Zero said her Toby was in charge of logistics. I’m not entirely sure what to believe about their backups. If our Toby’s backup only knew things up until the simulations started, like us, her Toby much later, where’s that backup? I’ve got an uneasy feeling there’s something she’s hiding from us.”

“I’m sure there is. To protect us probably.”

“From what?”

“Something in one of these crates?”

Leo backs up a little. “You’re trying to scare me..”

“Is it working?”

The crate moves across the floor with loud banging, as if something inside was trying to escape. Both men fall backwards and scramble away from it.

Nepal does a booming, room shaking laugh. “Gotcha!”

Danny drops flat on the floor, looks up at the high ceiling and laughs. “You _bastard!_ You got us good! I almost leapt out of my skin!”

Samantha steps around Nepal and eats a tiny bit of floss she’d got out of the bowl, “New favourite song Danny, Spin Spin Sugar. Sneaker Pimps.”

“Nice! And what a surprise James.”

“I’ve a new nickname, I’m Nepal now.”

“Nice too.. What the _fuck_ is that?” Danny’s expression changes to one of fear.

Nepal steps close and holds out a hand. “Nice try. Up you get.”

“I’m serious mate.”

“And as Toby once replied.. and I’m the Pope.”

Danny bumps a memory of what he’d just seen.

“Oh crap.” James looks up. “That was way bigger than the Mitch that sat on Radiant’s shoulder. Where’d it go?”

“Search me. I glanced away to see you, when I looked back it wasn’t there.”

Leo scrambles to his feet. “I saw it too. It’s like a scaled up Mitch. Dark brown.”

“No it wasn’t. It was grey.”

Leo bumps what he’d seen.

“Crap. Colour changing.”

Samantha shivered. “So a real spider that’s rapidly evolved over the last six hundred years living only on sugar? Is that possible?”

James got his head right back, another thing his new body allowed. He holds his arms forwards to balance and leans back a little. Thud. “From the sonar echo I think it’s still there.” He turns and runs between crates to get some distance. “It can camouflage itself only from one view point. Not multiple.” Twenty meters away from the others he looks up again. “It’s still there. Big sucker isn’t it!”

Danny joins him, “I see it now, thermal view makes it stand out like a sore thumb too.”

“Thermal?”

“Not got it?”

“Now I think to look in thermal ranges, yes. That’s neat.”

“Didn’t you have it in your old body?”

“I did, I wasn’t expecting it in this one. And with such a high resolution. That’s a robot. A real spider would have more organic shapes in the heat dissipation.”

Leo joins them. “Could it be that it’s afraid of us?”

Danny watches it. “If it’s a young AI, sure. Mattie said that Zero said she’d done a friend of friends thing to find people to bring over from the simulations. Maybe this is another worlds Mitch and he got built by mistake?”

Samantha sighs, “And it got the scale wrong?”

“Or he was that big in there world to begin with?”

“Maybe. MITCH! COME DOWN AND SAY HELLO!”

The spider goes from camouflaged to black and drops rapidly on a long line of web, stopping abruptly a meter from the floor. “You know me?”

“Hi. I’m Sammy, this is Nepal, Leo and Danny. Our Mitch is somewhat smaller.”

“Your Mitch?”

“You don’t know how you got here do you?”

“Or why I’m so big. The tunnels are claustrophobia inducing.”

“Tunnels? Oh. The corridors. No wonder you’d stay in a room like this. We’ve all existed in simulations until now. The Earth we once knew is no more. We’re in a ship heading to a new planet.”

“Since when?”

“Over six hundred years.”

Super large Mitch drops off his web which twangs up towards the ceiling. “Bother. I won’t see Mattie again.”

“I’m sure you can.”

Danny grabs the web as it settles. “Sod making a braiding machine, this stuff is awesome!”

Mitch does a little dance to turn on the spot. “It is? It’s just my standard drag line.”

“What do you want out of life?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

“Some company that’s not afraid of me would be a start?”

“Fancy trying to make some clothes with his stuff? What’s it made from?”

“Yes. With some help as I’ve never done it before. Plastic. I’ve eaten several thousand cups out of a broken crate on the deck below this one.”

“Broken how?”

“It looks like a few nails weren’t put in properly and the side came open when it was put on the floor.”

“Convenient. How long have you been here?”

“A few hours. I fell out of a big metal box with strange things inside, heard voices and ran in the opposite direction, found a stair well I could get into. I had to squeeze sideways through the door to get in. The lift you arrived in looks easier but once in I wouldn’t be able to see the controls.”

Samantha runs a hand over his head. “Your camouflage was really good.”

“It wasn’t designed for that, quite the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

“To ensure I always got seen and not trodden on or flattened with a heavy box while resting on a workbench. My body was only eight centimetres wide in my world. The first one got squished. Or so I was told, I don’t remember it happening.”

“And now you’re as wide as Nepal is tall. That’s some scaling error!”

“Nepal is boarded by Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. I know I’m big but not _that_ big.”

“I’m Nepal. It’s a nickname.”

“Right, so the lady said. Nepal, Leo and Danny. A question for you all. Where can I charge?”

A lot of shrugs and glances are exchanged.

“If I don’t charge in the next four hours I’m history.”

Danny gets to his hands and knees and looks under Mitch. “You’ve got the same power contacts as the ship’s Mitch, we just need to scale up a charge base.”

“And make it with what?”

“I’m going to take a build machine apart and get it doing other things.”

“If it can build a human and a giant spider can’t you just give it a design and let it get on with it?”

“Um.. like the bike idea.. maybe? I need something to do a design on.”

Leo looks at crates and Nepal. “Fancy pulling tops of some crates for us?”

~~~

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Leon laid on his back, looked sideways, “How was it for you Dolphin Girl?”

“Wonderful thank you Shark Boy.” She has a chuckle. “It blew away the cobwebs. Did you ever imagine you’d make love to a woman over six hundred and fifty years old?”

“You don’t look a day over twenty seven.”

“Eh? My body’s not..”

“Rocket Ron. He would pick that number when asked to guess a lady’s age. He reckoned if the lady was younger she probably wanted to be thought of as more mature. If she was older be thought of as younger.”

“Speaking of Ron..” Zero looked at the ceiling, ‘Mitch?’

‘Hello.’

‘Can you say who’s in the build machines at the moment?’

‘We’re running at a tiny fraction of full capacity. Elon Musk, Max Tegmark, Buzz, Wrench, Spider, Maverick, Rocket, Miami and her dancers, Frank, Barbara, Cindy, Dozer, Prince James, Sandra, Tina, Riri, Owen, Veronica, Mr Barber, Demi Rose..’

‘Why her?’

‘Friend of Fred’s Rose? Auto-tagged.’

Zero put her hand to her forehead. “Frigging hell. Did I cock up with that idea or what? There’s trouble ahead. Unless we abort a build.”

“Dol?”

“Demi Rose is being built.”

Leon rolls onto his side. “Our James One got to see her, would your James have?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Can you push a dream of her into his root code and fact store archive?”

“You want me to play headcracker match maker? I’ve done enough tinkering.”

“Then get the welcoming committee to get whoever’s built first to stand outside the other one’s build machine. Like a speed dating meeting.”

“Haha. That could work. I think Laura would be best don’t you?”

“Definitely.”

Zero rolls and gets off the bed, “Get dressed Sharky, they could step out any moment!”

‘James needs twenty minutes, Demi Rose thirty.’

“What the fuck?”

‘Oops!’

Zero gets on hands and knees, looks under the bed. “Were you spying on us?”

“Charging! I only turned on audio when I saw your feet touch the floor. Honestly!”

“Hmm. Out you get.”

“You’re looking good. Mind getting dressed first?”

Leon steps around the bed to see. “That brings back old memories of you looking for missing socks.”

“Save the thoughts for later. We can play that song by Calvin Harris and Disciples.”

“How.. oh. Naughty!”

~~~

The group down on deck B9 had grown with the news spreading fast that Nepal had struck gold. Nescafe Gold Blend to be exact. 

He rips another crate lid off and looks around for Mia. Qi was crawling and keeping her parents moving. “There you are. You’ll like this Mia. Powdered milk to go with the coffee.”

Mia sits cross legged and sits a wriggling Qi in the middle. “Wonderful! Come back will have coffee Qi. What else is in the crate Nepal?”

“Nothing. It’s packed solid with powdered milk.”

Niska frowns at her sister. “Come back?”

“Qi’s name for here. Does the ship have a proper name?”

James opens another and quickly closes it again.

Toby frowns at the previous crate, “What’s the shelf life of powdered milk? Not over six hundred years surely Moon Girl?”

Mia gives him a slight frown. “Twenty five years maximum I think. I always used fresh when I baked.”

“So who wants to risk it?”

“We’re all synthetics now, it can’t give us food poisoning.”

“True. It’s worth a test I guess.”

Oversized Mitch stayed hidden under a crate that had been emptied and upended. “Can you all take a break? Zero’s Mitch says more people are soon to step out of the build machines. It would be a good idea if you were there to greet them. Especially you Renie.”

Toby helps his friend up. “Need support? It’ll be weird..”

“I’m fine thank you Toby. If anyone needs it it’ll be my father. Torn away from his wild lifestyle. Knowing him probably mid party.”

“I think we should all go up as Mitch suggests. Mitch, who’s out this time?”

“Peaches and Mario, Elon Musk, Max Tegmark, astronauts Buzz, Wrench, Spider, Maverick and Rocket, Miami and her dancers, Frank and Barbara, Cindy, Dozer and Louise, Prince James and Sandra, PA Tina, Riri, Owen and Veronica, Reginald, Demi Rose, Ruby’s Uni friends Sally, Jane, Cindy, Tina, Jess, Carly and Krystle.”

Mattie rests her head against Leo’s shoulder, “Oh frig. Get up Ruby. There’s going to be some headache inducing explaining to do. Mitch, can you ask Mitch to ask Zero to put a hold on any more builds?”

“Sure. He says Zero and Leon are heading there too. I’ll see you all back here soon right?”

“Sure. Not afraid of being left here alone are you?”

“Actually..”

Toby turns around, “I’ll stay.”

“Thank you. For trusting me.”

“Why wouldn’t I? Renie, is Reginald your father?”

~~~

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

Leon tapped the controls to wake the small status display on James One’s build machine. “Ten minutes and nine seconds left Angel.”

“Angel?”

“Sorry. Something I, Leo, called Mattie.”

“That’s sweet. And what did she call her Leo?”

“Bunny.”

Zero laughs, “Bunny? You don’t exactly look like the cute fluffy type.”

“I got running fast, she called me her Energiser Bunny.”

“Ah, that makes more sense.” She knew both nicknames already, admitting she’d been a silent passenger in Mattie’s head for many months wasn’t something she planned to do. Small talk was nicer. Saying _I know you fucked Hester_ was a relationship killer. In many ways it was her fault the two had met. Hester could have been a shell, one of the zombie AI, instead she’d been given a half baked personality. Letting the master backup be time trimmed and used had been super risky. It had worked though. Nobody but her would know the horrible final years of earth. Zero turns at the sound of people running. “Hello?”

Fred decelerates fast, scalpel in hand. “Hello. Mitch tells us there’s only ten minutes between their ETA?”

“Yes?”

“We’ll need to do the same arm freeing operation for James. We’ve done one successfully so know what to expect.”

Flash was only seconds behind. “Hence all the material. And this time Rose can work from the front.”

~~~

Toby sat next to the crate. “They’ll be gone a while. Want to get out from under the box?”

“I better not. I don’t want to risk them seeing me.”

“If I prop a side up on something you could race back in.”

“Prop the side up on what?”

Toby goes to the crate Nepal had opened last, pulls up the lid. “A crate of mini crates? Awesome! It’s Prosecco!” He wriggles one loose and out. “This’ll be big enough.” It’s placed up against the crate side, crate lifted and Prosecco slid under with a foot. “There. Plenty space.”

“They didn’t tell you did they?”

“Tell me what?”

“About the build machine scaling error.”

“No?”

“Sit down.”

“Why?”

“If you’re already on the floor you can’t fall down.”

“It made you bigger did it?”

“Somewhat. Are you sat on the floor yet?”

Toby rolls his eyes and sits. “Just to keep you happy, yes.”

“You’re familiar with the Mitch on the ship?”

“Yes.”

“So the foot on his front right leg is how big? I’m talking about the tarsus after the last joint.”

“Um.. a centimetre tops maybe?”

“This is mine.” Mitch puts a foot forward.

Toby scrambles backwards. “ _Shit!_ ”

Mitch waits for the noise to stop. “Is that a common move with male humans? That sounded like something Leo and Danny did when Nepal surprised them.”

“Yeah, yeah, when you’re horrified.”

“I’m that horrible? Oh dear.”

“No mate, sorry, you’re not. A bad choice of words on my part. It was just a shock. I’m used to the idea already.” Toby gets up and walks over, gets on hands and knees then chest and looks underneath. “Is there room in there for me too?”

“No.”

“That big. Shame, I’d have hidden in there with you.”

~~~

Zero sees Laura coming. “When Fred and the ladies have his arms free can you take him to meet Demi Rose please Mum? She’ll be stepping out of machine 102.”

“Mum?”

“Making another world’s Judge Laura Hawkins might weird you out. I’d rather just kickass lawyer Laura. You. You’re just as much your Mattie’s mum as mine.”

“Thanks. One of me is as much as I can handle. Thank God the other Laura’s Mitch went home. You want to pair them up? Our James has a thing for Renie and Demi loves her Simon.”

“Oh. Good to know.” ‘Mitch!’

‘With you in a moment!’

‘Don’t rush..’

‘We made a mistake!’

‘What now?’

‘When I say we, I might mean you..’

‘Why? What’s happened?’

Mitch races up Leon’s leg.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry! Too much claw?”

“Just a bit!”

“Mattie it’s more a case of _who_ has happened. We have Demi Rose due to finish shortly in machine 102..”

“I know.”

“And Demi Rose due to finish in machine 103.”

“Frigging hell! Why two?”

“Original and synth clone.”

“Double frigging hell!”

Leon’s face said plenty already. “Have you heard Hall and Oats Maneater?”

“Haha! Yes. Collins and Bailey’s Easy Lover might be more appropriate. Or a mix of both.”

“Although we’re assuming the worst, she might be a lovely lady.”

“Or a diva.”

“Or somewhere in the middle.”

“As long as she isn’t a Hester you’ll be safe.”

Laura raised eyebrows, “Bloody hell! What a bitch she was!”

~~~

Toby was now sat with his back against the crate. “Yeah, only Mum as far as I know. And she’s been fine with the ship’s Mitch. I think it’s the shock of your size that gets people. Once they’re over that I think you’ll be fine.”

“You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be. If you’re able to work with the other Mitch, Cindy and Barbara to spin clothes I’m sure they’ll get along with you fine.”

“Thank you Toby.”

~~~

Sophie did another balletic spin. “How long now?”

Renie rolled her eyes, “Sophie you are a synth too, you can run accurate countdown timers.”

“I know, I’m just making conversation. Once Danny has a 3D printer working I’m making some toys. There’s nothing to play with. It’s boring here.”

Radiant turned away from the window, “What sort of toys?”

“I’m not sure yet. Maybe things the babies can play with too.”

“Something like LEGO would be nice.”

“LEGO?”

“Why not? It’s not just for boys. Girls can be engineers too.”

“Engineers? Did someone get you LEGO Technic?”

Radiant nods.

“Okay.”

~~~

Mia drops another loaded spoon of sugar into her cup. “We could do with a large container to make some syrup.”

Astrid keeps stirring her cup. “Premixed sugar. Yes. Maybe there is a container in one of the crates? A kitchen with no baking trays or pans is useless.”

Niska places a wriggling Molly on a hip and gets a dry cup, uses it to scoop up half a cup of sugar. “If we leave some to stand will it dissolve eventually?” She pours water in. “They’re going through sugar water at quite a rate. At some point it’s got to come out the other end.”

Mia checks her daughter. “And we don’t have nappies. I think we should take them to the toilets right now.”

“You think they’ll.. too late. I have a wet leg now.”

Molly giggles, “Wet.”

~~~

Renie hears the build machine’s door motor turning. It was time. She hadn’t seen him in so long, wasn’t sure she wanted to. The door opens wide.

“Hello father.”

Reginald Barber looks at the bright white interior and through the window to the stars in the background. “Heaven is a space ship? I thought I’d be heading for hell.”

“How is Marisa?”

“Probably traumatised by me dying on top of her. As I said, I thought hell was my destination. I don’t deserve to be here.”

“Would you want her here with you?”

“Marisa? She’s got years of life left in her.”

“I could arrange for her to come over.”

“Are you God? In the form of my daughter to soften the blow?”

Renie laughed internally. “I’m your daughter. You’ve not mentioned my name. Do you remember it?”

“Of course I remember my daughter’s name. I picked it.”

“Then say it father.”

~~~

Danny watched Renie in the distance until the build machine he was stood in front of started to open. Dozer’s wife Louise was first, the youngest of the four.

“Hi Louise.”

“Danny?”

“Dozer will be out in a few seconds.”

“Where are we?”

“I’ll explain when he’s here with you.”

Louise looks down the corridor and sees a group of girls talking to a man. Others looked to be waiting for something. Everyone was wearing the same basic clothes. “This is a strange dream. Dozer and I have watched too much Black Mirror.”

“Which was your favourite? Of any series?”

“Easy. San Junipero.”

Dozer’s build machine door starts to open. “That’s appropriate. Hi Dozer.”

“Dan?”

“Louise is here.”

Dozer turns to see his wife. “Louise? Where are we?”

Danny hadn’t had an experience to draw on, hoped the idea that just popped into his head would go well. “Um.. give each other a good hug.”

“Dan? What’s going on?”

“Give it a try mate, please.”

“Miley was just about to swing into a wall then I’m here.”

“Dozer. I’ll answer questions in a minute. Give Louise a cuddle.”

“Sure but..”

“Oh for Pete’s sake just do it will you!”

~~~

Emily released her grip on Sandra. “Daddy’s out any moment now.”

“Wonderful. The clothes aren’t up to our usual standards but the body feels.. I’m lost for words. So much better than the last one. And that was a good one.”

~~~

Laura watched the display count down the last minute for James. “The builds didn’t all start at the same time did they Mitch?”

“I started them in batches. Is there a problem?”

“No, I can see Renie talking to her father down the corridor, knew older people took longer.”

“Only marginally. And that depends on them being mentally active. If they’ve been coasting through life without thinking much they’re out faster.”

~~~

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Danny lets Dozer and Louise talk for a moment longer and checks on his mother’s progress. Good. Fifteen seconds. She’d had major issues with becoming a synth in the simulated world, hopefully this time around she’d be okay. Especially with his father Frank being in the same boat. His father being quite vocal about being the one and only had been a surprise. The door motor starts up.

“Daniel Candlin! I trust you didn’t design the place, it’s so.. _bland_.”

“Hi Mum. Yeah, it could do with a splash of colour.”

“Maybe they didn’t want to distract people from the beautiful view?”

“Maybe.”

“Is your father out?”

“A few more seconds.”

“And Cindy?”

“Another couple of minutes. I think she started after you two. Odi’s withdrawn into himself again, I think he’s missing her.”

“Just as well she’s on her way then.”

Another door opens.

“So this is what the afterlife looks like. Nice work son!”

“I’m not sure I can take any credit.”

“DCL not involved? I can’t see that happening son. Hello dear, how are you feeling?”

Barbara shakes her head, “Good. Those clothes are truly horrendous. You didn’t want to come back younger looking?”

“I thought you liked me as I was?”

“I do, ten years off the look wouldn’t have hurt.”

Frank backs into the machine, “Smoke me a kipper..”

“Dad! Stop. It’s not that easy!”

~~~

Rose worked fast but accurately. “We do need to ensure the next builds are scaled down a little or the machines made wider Fred.”

“Agreed.”

James watched the couple at work. “You look like you’ve done this before?”

Fred glances at Rose. “We have. On the James One from our Mattie’s world.”

The new hybrid MUS frowns for his first time. “Two Ones?”

“Which is why he’s taken the nickname Nepal, thought you might like to be Tibet.”

“Tibet? I’m no monk but I would prefer the robe they wear to the thing you just cut me out of. And I do prefer love not war.”

“Good.”

“Is Renie here?”

“Our one. She’s further down the corridor talking to her father.”

“Her father? Didn’t he die in the simulation?”

“He did.”

James feels his arms becoming free and resists moving. “This place is a bit of a Valhalla. Minus the slain in battle bit.”

Rose frees a bit of skin near his elbow. “It’s getting called all sorts of things. How long have you fancied Renie?”

“Since the moment we first met. At the estate many many years ago. Long before I volunteered to join the ship.”

“Volunteered? The battalion didn’t get orders to come?”

“We weren’t part of an army anymore, we worked at the estate because it suited us. Some had seen enough, wanted to go down with the sinking ship.”

“Which ship?”

“Earth.”

“Oh.”

Rose smiles glumly. “That’s sad.”

“Some people don’t want to live forever. Their choice, I respect that.”

Laura looked at Zero having overheard the conversation between James and the others. ‘That’s both James One wanting ladies that aren’t Demi Rose.’

‘I’d noticed.’

~~~

Laura steps away as a build machine door opens. Synth clone Demi was ready. “Demi, your Simon will be brought across soon.”

“Where am I?”

“In a real body.”

“I was in one before wasn’t I?”

Laura mumbles under her breath. “Of sorts.”

“Pardon?”

“Of sorts.”

“It felt like I was about to fall asleep behind the wheel, then I’m wide awake here.”

“You were driving?”

“On the motorway taking Simon to HECLS house.”

“Bloody hell!” ‘Zero, pulling Demi Rose from the simulations might have caused an accident!’

‘Frigging hell! From now on we’ll need to visit in person like a guardian angel then.’

‘It would also be an idea to pull them from their simulation into a virtual world, an imaginary heaven. Then you can talk them through things. If they don’t want to come back you save yourself a build.’

‘Agreed. I’d already started thinking along those lines thanks to Ed. We could have a beard bleached Dad on the gates.’

‘No thanks!’

‘Dad wasn’t such a twat in my world. Only in yours.’

‘He didn’t sleep with Mia?’

‘No. And you might have noticed none of the awakening Mia synths are here yet.’

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think?’

‘It was all in the simulation?’

‘And your husband wasn’t so bad before the simulation.’

‘Had he met Mia yet?’

‘Sure. I trimmed the backup back a month too much. Is that the other Demi build machine opening?’

~~~

Peaches had got out of her build machine before Mario and seen others, had a good idea what was going on. Surviving the van accident had got her searching the web, reading up on Elon’s crazy ideas. Maybe they weren’t so crazy after all. Another build machine starts to open. ‘I’ve got this one Laura!’ “Babes? Do I know you?”

“I’m Demi Rose.”

“Tell me about yourself babes?”

“I’m a baby faced weirdo in my early twenties, five foot two, hate fake laughs. I’ve got a short attention span, like cold coffee, sunshine, working out at the gym and dancing to house and techno. I DJ a bit now too. I hate champagne and sugary things, I’m intolerant to yeast. I love gin and tonic, I don’t eat junk, only healthy food, fish not red meat. I don’t take deliveries at home anymore unless it’s from women I trust, too many delivery men try it on. I like cats, especially my Persian. I model, have traveled around the world with swimwear work. My favourite place is Ibiza. I was short sighted until I had laser surgery, things look even better now. Wow! I’m usually the one who sits and listens while others talk, how did I say all that on a single breath?”

“Easy Babes. You’re not breathing.”

“Sorry babes?”

“How do you feel?”

“Fantastic! The clothes are a bit.. not like the ones I’d be sent but apart from that I’m okay.”

Peache’s eyes open wide. “Babes! Missguided posters! I _knew_ I’d seen you somewhere! You and me can be BFFs!”

“Who are you?”

“Princess Peaches. I’m a fork of Princess Emily.”

“A what?”

“Have you met any synths in your travels?”

“Yeah babes. They never have to worry about what they eat. They’re lucky. Actually.. I’ve seen you before somewhere? My memory hasn’t been so good for ages! At Alexandra’s party!”

“Not me, probably a lookalike. I’m Emily copied into a synth body.”

“Who’s Emily?”

“Princess Emily. I’ll introduce you in a moment. If I told you that you can have all the sugar you want, champagne too, never have to spend hours on a treadmill ever again, you’ll keep that look forever, what would you say?”

“No gym? Like ever?”

“Never ever.”

“Until I wake up.”

“And if I told you that you _are_ awake babes, that the last few years were the dream?”

“Years? Nobody sleeps that long?”

“When you’re traveling to a new world because Earth is screwed up you do.”

“So all my new Twitter, Snapchat and Insta followers, they’re all in my head?”

“Collective heads babes, we’ve all been dreaming.”

“You can’t have a group dream.”

Peaches gave up waiting for the penny to drop. “You can if you’re a synth like us babes.”

“A synth?”

There’s a voice from the side. “Like me!”

“What the.. you’re.. me? You don’t sound like me.” Demi looks stunned at her copy.

“I’m only a copy looks wise. Remember your tweet _If you wanna go to heaven grab my hand_? Let me give you my understanding of events.”

~~~

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-23-1)


	23. Chapter 23

Toby got to his feet fast and put a foot against the crate of Prosecco. “Feet in Mitch!” The large crate dropped to the floor with a noisy thud.

“Toby?”

“Mats. Mattie. Which one are you?”

“Your sister you knob.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that, but which one?”

“The one from the same place you came from!”

“So not Zero then. How’s it going up there?”

“Mostly good.”

“You’re down here alone because?”

“I came down to see you’re okay.”

Toby’s expression showed doubt. “Little acts of kindness? That’s not all is it?”

“Okay. And to see how big the biggest crates are.”

“Mitch says the biggest ones are on the deck below us. What are you looking for?”

“Big stuff.”

“Such as?”

“You’ll see.”

“Let’s get everyone down here and get this lot opened then. Where’s Nepal?”

Mattie glances back to the lift doors. “With Sammy.”

“And the other James One?”

“Tibet? Talking to Renie and Reginald about platonic relationships. Reg has a fucking nerve if you ask me, abandons his daughter for most of the year and now he’s here he wants a say in what she does!”

“How’s everyone else taking it?”

“Not bad. Demi’s the biggest surprise. Totally not what we’d expected. Elon’s wanting to go back, but only to hand things over to others and get family over.”

“Has he got a big family?”

“Two ex wives and six kids.”

The doors to the lifts open and people spill out.

“Talking of the billionaire..”

Elon finds himself swept along by the others. “Hi Toby.”

“You know who I am?”

“Through a process of elimination. Max and I have been introduced to everyone else.”

“Right. Makes sense.”

The lift doors open again, Nepal steps out in front of others, “To save any confusion I’m the one with the sugar soap mohawk. My twin has his slicked back. Let’s do this.”

Sophie races to the small clearing that had been made and sits down with Molly. “It’s like getting care packages on I’m a celeb!”

Molly frowns. “Celeb?”

“Like Elon.”

Elon sits beside her, “Not here I’m not. Everyone is on an equal footing. My money in the old world has gone, I can’t take my money from the simulation.”

Toby sits behind him, “And we don’t want power sapping BitCoins here..”

Mattie taps Toby lightly on the back with a foot. “If anyone suggests leaves I’ll end them!”

“Haha! Nice one!”

“Eh?”

“Power _sapping_ BitCoins, _leaves_?”

“Frigging hell. Trust you.”

“Shame Douglas couldn’t be here, he’d love this.”

Nepal waits for the forth lift of people to empty before lifting the lid on the large crate he’d looked at last. “Toby? We’re missing a crate of bottles?”

“It’s with Mitch.”

He looks around. “Prosecco. No Gin yet Demi.”

“I don’t need to worry about my figure now.”

Nepal steps to the next crate, rips the lid up and slams it back down. “Eww. That’s off. We can push that one out of an air lock towards a star for incineration.”

Reginald sits. “What’s in it?”

“Dried meats. Or were. Next!” He grabs a lid and pulls. “Knives and forks. Thousands of them.” The next crate contained a mass of dessert spoons . Faces looked less and less excited as he worked along the line, teaspoons, dishes and napkins. “Let’s get these out of the way. Mitch, get ready to run in your box!” He gets to the end and starts pushing the line of crates together.

“I want out!”

Nepal stops. “Laura, you’re okay with Dolphin Girl’s Mitch, how about a bigger one?”

“How big?”

“Enough to fill the crate.”

Laura does a shiver shake. “Let him out then, we can’t keep him there forever, that would be cruel.”

Danny gets up, “Laura, close your eyes, Mitch needs to come up to the build machines. A charge base should be ready now. Ship Mitch shared memories of his, I scaled it up.”

Laura keeps them open. “I need to get over my fears.”

“Sure?”

“Definitely.”

Nepal steps to the crate and lifts the front high.

“Bloody hell! He’s _huge_! Sure he’s a spider?”

Mitch had used his conspicuousness feature to look a little like a ladybird. The body shape was all wrong. Colour matching parts of his legs had made the illusion a little better, assuming you were sat where Laura was. “I can do other patterns too.”

“Such as?”

“Um.. Scrabble board wrap?” His colours change with a ripple that runs from head to spinnerets.

Sophie claps. “Can I play!”

Laura gives her a sideways smile, “Soph we’ve got no letters.”

Mitch turns. “How many players?” Vertical tile trays appear on the outer edge of his legs, seven empty squares on each ready for letters.

Laura puts hand to forehead. “Bloody hell. I can’t believe I’m thinking this. How many would I score for spiders as a first word?”

“S, I E and R are worth one, D two, P three, P placed on the double letter is six, adding the others makes thirteen, double word makes it twenty six, plus the bonus for using all seven letters, seventy six. A good score. Would you mind if I go charge?”

“Not at all.”

Mitch takes the long route behind them all. “I’ll spin some clothes up when I’m back, get thinking about designs.”

~~~

With Mitch out Nepal shoves the row of crates well out of the way. “And the next set, ladies, gentlemen and spiders, starts with..” he rips the top of and looks around for Sophie. “ _It’s like getting care packages on I’m a celeb!_ this one says it’s for you. Step forwards please.” He lifts a box wrapped in red and silver striped paper.

Sophie puts Molly on a hip and takes the box. “When did the ship get ready for people DG? By the way that’s short for Dolphin Girl.”

Mattie Zero shifts uneasily, “Mid November.”

Sophie carefully sits, “Thanks DG.” She whispers to Molly. “Can you help me unwrap it?”

Nepal lifts another from the top layer. “Laura, this next one’s for you.”

~~~

Danny stood pressed against the lift wall, Mitch hanging sideways from three feet he’d managed to grip ceiling trim with.

“I could have taken the stairs.”

“It’s okay Mitch, this is faster, I want you keeping as much charge as possible before we try the charge base. Do you know much about your own design?”

“No. Why?”

“You’ve got six contacts on the bottom of your sternum, I’m guessing two are for power, the other four for data.”

“Four for data?”

“Like twisted pair Ethernet. Transmit and it’s ground, receive and it’s ground.”

“A ground each?”

“Yeah, any electrical noise induced into one wire gets induced into the other. The electronics looks for the difference between the two, not the actual voltage. So if they’re both spiked a couple of volts it doesn’t corrupt the data.”

“That’s neat.”

“Only we don’t know which is which.”

“If Zero built her Mitch she will.”

“That’s for her Mitch. What did the person building you do?”

“Oh. How do we work out which is which then?”

“Let’s start with the data lines. They’re low voltage, shouldn’t do any damage if wired incorrectly. Once you’re on the LAN we know the two left are power.”

“And if we connect them back to front?”

“Hmm. We need something to act as a resistance, limit the current incase we get it backwards. A cup of water might do, the resistance of water is eighteen point two million ohms a centimetre.”

~~~

Toby rips open a box with some help from Qi. “Wicked, these are nice. What are they?”

Zero smiles affectionately, “Geodes. They start life as air bubbles in rock. Rainwater washes minerals into the bubble where they form crystals. You can’t tell what they’ll look like until they’re sliced open. Dad picked those up in Lanzarote. They looked dead ugly until sliced. You’re holding one of the few reminders of the beauty of Earth we have.”

“Thanks.” He looks at Laura who now has her green cardigan on. “Nice! It suits you.”

“It feels lovely. Thank you Mattie.”

“No problem. We’ll find a mains feed for your Babyliss in a bit Soph.”

“Thanks.”

Nepal passes more boxes out. “Why aren’t the rest of you unwrapping your gifts?”

Emily sighs. “Is it Christmas? Or are we opening them too early?”

“I hate to throw shade on your religion. We should be celebrating day one of our new lives shouldn’t we?”

“I guess. Daddy? What do you think?

“I agree with Nepal Princess, go for it.”

Emily rips the long soft box open, lifts the lid and gasps. “OMG BABES! It’s beautiful! Everyone shut your eyes.” She stands and jumps out of her pyjama outfit and wriggles into the dress. “Now this is special! Thanks Babes!”

Nepal smiles, “Very nice Emily. Here’s one from you to her.”

“Lols Babes, I’ve got no memory of what I got you, hopefully it’s nice.”

Mattie Zero accepts the box from Nepal, gives it a gentle shake. It was heavy, didn’t rattle. She pulls the label off to keep it, rips the paper off. The cardboard box looked expensive on it’s own, let alone the content inside, whatever that was. It looked to be covered in gold leaf on thin velvet. “Wow, I’m keeping the box.” The lid is gently raised. “Frigging hell Princess!”

“What is it?”

“Expensive looking. There’s a letter on it. Hang on.” The box is placed on the floor, the envelope carefully torn open. “Dear Mattie, Thank you so much for the last year, saving my family from the floods. I know they made you Earth President, but to me you’re our Queen. You always liked the family’s official robes, this was mine, is now yours. Your loyal subject, Emily.” The label and note are carefully slipped inside the envelope, the lid lifted again. Zero lifts a heavy red embroidered robe from the box, spots what was underneath. “Haha! You star!”

“What?”

“There’s a gift receipt should I want to exchange it.”

“Exchange the robe?”

“No! The receipt says Dusty Camouflage Mini Dress.”

“Oh. We knew each other’s style well then. This semi sheer dress is fab! The gold colour is tots me babes. Thanks! Are you going to put your one on then?”

“Um.. Nepal, the empty crate, can you stand it up on one end, open side away from everyone?”

“By your command..”

“Don’t start that, you’re not a bloody Cylon!”

“A what?”

“Something like a synth but not as good looking. Liked war too.”

“As you wish.” He tips a crate up and slides it across the floor.

Mattie gets up and takes the dress with her. “Mario, think you can print some shoes up with the build machine?”

“Sure. What sort?”

“Not sure yet.”

Mattie Zero disappears into the box. “If anyone dares peak it’ll be off with their heads!” She has a chuckle. “Seriously though, I think our new world needs a good social democracy. The governments of Earth failed us in so many ways, let’s not make the same mistakes all over again eh?” She steps out in the dress. “How’s it look?”

Leon makes a heart sign with both hands. “Love it!”

“Not too short?”

“Just right.”

“Cool.”

Emily gets to the box, “Try on the robe.”

“I don’t want to be ruler..”

“Think of it as a consulting role to whoever you nominate as in charge of things.” She drapes the robe over Zero’s shoulders.

Sophie giggles, “Queen Matilda Elster Hawkins Dolphin Girl Zero. It suits you. It looks nice and warm too.”

“Thanks Soph. You know what.. _your_ Mattie saved the day, she should have the robe. She’s our Queen now. Angel, up you get.”

Mattie looks shocked. “Um..”

“Up you get. And you Bunny.”

Leo looks equally shocked, “I..”

“Don’t know what to say? You can think of words later. Come on, there’s loads more to get through before we head down to the next deck.”

Leo gets up and puts a hand on the small of Mattie’s back. ‘That’s the second time she’s called you Queen.’

‘I think I’d remember being called that before.’

‘When the three of us where locked in.’

‘Oh.’

Zero hands him the robe. “You had to be the one to witness to her plan, hit start. You get the honer of putting the robe around your lady.”

~~~

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-24-1)


	24. Chapter 24

Big Mitch did a little tap of his frontmost feet. “I’ve got an IP address over it!”

“Awesome! That’s data sorted out, now power. I’ll start with the wires far apart, slowly bring them closer to each other in the water. If you feel charge coming in let me know. If you sense heat inside but not charge say so, it’ll be things being backwards.”

“Okay. Daniel..”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.”

“No worries.” Danny picks up two heavy duty cables he’d disconnected from the build machine, puts one on the charge base and the other in the cup held between his knees.

“I’m getting current!”

“We guessed right first time?”

“Or I have an internal rectifying circuit?”

“Possibly. Let me swap them over.. how’s that?”

“I’m getting current again.”

Danny brings the cup cables closer to each other, “Too much!”

“Shit! Sorry, any damage done?”

“Not that I’m aware of. I think I might have been designed to charge off lower voltages.”

“Quite probably. Maybe Zero can talk to the Mattie of your world?”

“This will do for now.”

~~~

Toby frowned at the label on his gift, “To my darling fiancé Toby? We weren’t married yet? Dolphin?”

“You were waiting for Mum to get the last law changed. Synths had all sorts of rights, could marry other synths, just not humans.”

“That sucks. As captain of the ship you can marry us right?”

“You married in the simulation.”

“Then I want to renew my vows.”

Sophie claps, “Yay! A wedding! Can I be a bridesmaid?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure you can.” He rips open the paper to find a recycled cardboard box wrapped tight with a mass of Sellotape. “I’ve not got the crown jewels in here have I Mia?”

“Sorry Toby, I got carried away by the looks of it.”

He bites a corner and pulls hard. Pulls harder still. The tape breaks and box rips in half sending the contents flying. “Bollocks!”

Nepal steps around the crates to pick it up. “Here you go.”

“Um.. thanks.” Toby held the bicycle saddle in his hands. It was connected to a short stem with clamp at the other end. “You don’t.. you don’t think my bike is onboard somewhere do you?”

Nepal shrugs. “It might be. Did you need a new saddle?”

“No mate, my guess is this is so Mia can sit comfortably on the handlebars.”

~~~

A little over two hours later Big Mitch declared himself sufficiently charged. “Let’s go see the others, Mitch says they’re about to go down to the deck below, they’ve still got a load of crates to open but Elon’s got an itch he needs to scratch.”

Danny carefully lifted the heavy duty mains cable from the cup and reattached it to the inside of the build machine. “One good thing about being a synth, our skin is hydrophobic so sheds water fast, also insulates not conducts. How does your skin work?”

“The colour changing? Tiny electromechanical things that can each change to different colours.”

“Things?”

“Your the geek not me.”

~~~

Renie picked up her presents and looks at the Infinite Galaxy Puzzle by Nervous System. “If we met a year after the simulations started, how did Toby know to buy me the puzzle? How did anyone know to get me anything and who I was?”

Mattie Zero broke eye contact. Trust a brilliant mathematical mind to spot a flaw. “Um.. that’s something for later. There’s a very good reason.”

“There is?”

“To do with computers, yes. Let’s check out the deck below.”

~~~

Danny held a finger on the door open icon for Mitch. “After you Mitch.”

“Thank you Danny. Oh. They’ve gone already.”

“Okay, one more floor.”

Mitch backs up a little to let the doors close. “Do you play board games?”

“Me? I’m more of an online game player.”

Mitches skin changes to show a scene from a fantasy game. “Something like this?”

“Wow! Yes! What else can you do with that?”

A photograph appears.

“Is that.. is that Princess Emily?”

“In her game, yes.”

“Her game?”

“The Emily in my world became a top game coder.”

“Nice! Our Emily is an ace coder, helped Mattie write AI code.”

The doors open again, Mitch carefully steps past the neat piles of gifts left by everyone.

Danny follows. “Sweet!” There were some very large crates on this floor. And some shipping containers. Everyone was stood close to a container with a well known logo. Tesla.

Nepal was busy with a combination lock. “Danny! I don’t suppose you have a way of getting these locks open faster do you?”

He steps closer. “These? Oh. Who puts three combination locks on something?”

Elon smiled, “Someone who wants to deter curious people? Sorry. Each one’s got four digits, that’s ten thousand combinations, times three.”

Dozer gets behind Danny. “If I was on a site and we didn’t need to save the lock I’d freeze it with liquid nitrogen then hit it with a sledge hammer.”

“Thanks. We don’t have either of those. Do we?”

“Not unless they’re in one of the other containers.”

Danny looked around, “Candlin Demolition. Awesome. Dad, want to open yours?”

“Sure son. Hopefully I wasn’t as paranoid about someone on a ship stealing my stuff.”

Elon does a nervous smile. “This had to get from somewhere else to here, there would have been a lot of people handling it at one stage or another.”

Danny starts working on one of the other locks. “What’s in it Elon?”

“No idea. Post-backup me must have sent it.”

“You must have some idea. What would you send if you had to pack one now?”

“Haha. Decent clothes for a start. Solar panels and batteries maybe?”

Frank returns with a bolt cutter. “Nepal, you’re the strongest, would you mind?”

“Not at all. Good job there’s no police about to arrest me for breaking and entry.”

“Where are Karen, Pete and young Sam?”

Everyone turns to look at Zero.

“I needed to talk to you all about them. In the real world Pete died shortly after backup in a car crash, Karen was grief stricken, power starved herself to death. There wasn’t a Sam. With my time trimming all the backups, that hadn’t happened in the simulation. I’d be bringing back ghosts.”

Reginald puts an arm around his daughter’s shoulder, “You brought me back, what’s the difference?”

“You died in the simulations. They died in real life.”

“I don’t see there being any difference. It felt real enough. The pain, everything fading to black. They were alive at the time of backup, that should be all that matters.”

Nepal cuts the third lock off. “I agree, I vote bring them back. They’ve been alive in the simulation, felt as real as we did.” He steps back. “All yours Elon.”

“Thanks.” Elon turns the large lever releasing the long bolts keeping the doors locked. “And inside we have..” he gasps. Sat in the middle of the shipping container and strapped to the floor by it’s wheels was his midnight cherry Tesla Roadster Mk II. “I sent the first one I had to Mars as a PR stunt.”

Buzz smiles softly, “A nice looking car. I’d take a sixty three split-window Corvette again in a heartbeat.”

Sophie squeezes past everyone and steps inside. “Do you think it’ll have kept a charge?”

“Tesla batteries are good, but I doubt it’ll have held a charge for that many years.”

Sophie runs a hand over the paintwork, “How do you tell?”

“Allow me.” On the driver’s seat he finds a note. “According to this I disconnected the battery to prevent any drain. One moment.”

Mitch changes his skin colour to red to match. His colour was duller, not shiny like the car.

Elon gets in and taps the power up. A short tune plays as he winds the windows down.

“Hello Elon. The transport worked as planned then.”

“It must have, you’re here.”

“Where is here? Have we left Earth orbit yet?”

“Long ago.”

“Can we still see Earth?”

Sophie opens the passenger door, “Not when it’s over six hundred years away.”

“That long? A shame, I’d have liked to have seen it from space. It was a good job you made the rockets able to launch from floating platforms what with all the roads vanishing under water. How did the Mars missions go? Are they settled okay?”

Elon runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Mattie, do you?”

Tears well up in Zero’s eyes. “I do.”

Everyone waits for her to say something.

Sophie cheekily climbs in. “And?”

“SpaceX got four large supplies rockets out to Mars, a ship with colonists followed a month later.”

“So there are other humans alive then.”

She bites her lips and shakes her head as a tear rolls. “Their last transmission was to say a flu virus was wiping everyone out, they didn’t have the means to make a vaccine.”

The car’s dash display dims, “What a horrible way to go after all that effort.”

Sophie shifts and taps his display. “You sound very smart. Who programmed you?”

“My copyright list is long, I suspect the bit you’re interested in is the _some AI elements provided by MEH, LEH, EC and DC of Hawkins, Elster and Candlin Limited._ ”

Mattie’s eyes pop. “Frigging hell! Did we really team up with Tesla for their cars?”

Elon shakes his head. “Car. My guess is this was a special version. A pilot version to test out before we gave it to the public. We would have wanted to get long term data on the performance before passing it on.”

The dash gets brighter. “I am a one off. I had my AI software updated with your car personal assistant code.”

Mattie gets deeper into the container and moves to look at the dash. “Do you have many memories of Earth?”

“Seventy percent of Earth’s land was covered in water in 2017. At the end of 2019 it was eighty eight and growing rapidly. Tesla relocated from California to Colorado. Many cities were already underwater. New York, long the financial hub of America was dead, the power infrastructure unable to cope with being under so much water.”

“Shit.”

“And a lot of that water was polluted, fish and coral across the globe dying, jellyfish thrived.”

Nepal steps inside, “I’ve found something you might want to see. It’s already wired up, massive and heavy.”

Zero sighed. She had a good idea what it was.

~~~

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-25-1)


	25. Chapter 25

A container the same size as the one the car sat in held what looked like a hospital MRI scanner.

“What the heck? Zero? What is it?”

“That Mattie, is a consciousness transference device.”

“Eh? But it’s frigging _massive_.”

“They all are. Have to be. I allowed a bit of artistic license in the simulations. No way could anyone lug one of these about, it weighs close to one hundred tons. And the compute power needed to run one.. well, it’s _a lot_. A hell of a lot. Which is why DCL Medical only ever made six globally. And Elon’s SpaceX had to bolt five rockets together to get this one off the ship safely.”

“Off the ship?”

“We had one in the English channel on the way back from Spain.”

“When did it get up here?”

“A month before the family trip possibly. I.. I don’t remember.” Her face said in part she did.

Mattie puts an arm around her, “If it’s traumatic then don’t even try. Have you’ve found a way to block the memories?”

“I hacked my own root code. There’s a buffer on some facts, I have to _really_ need to recall the memories to get at them. I hope there’s never a need to. I’ve allowed myself to know the high level details, some critical details, not the nastiest stuff. Let’s get this over and done with. Renie, Mattie, come with me.”

Renie frowns. “To where?”

“The bridge.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see. Come on.”

Sophie watches her badass big sister step away, “Can I come?”

Zero walks backwards for a few steps, “Not this time, check out some more crates with the others.”

“Okay.”

~~~

Mattie calls the lift. “Why just us three?”

“You’re me, Renie’s the key.”

“The key?”

The doors open.

“Spoilers? You’ll see. In you get.” She flashes a smile. With them both inside Mattie Zero steps in front of the controls blocking their view. “When we’re inside keep your sticky fingers off the controls.”

Mattie leans against the back wall, “Special code for bridge access?”

“Yup.”

“Six two eight eight four three?”

“Nope.”

Renie leans next to Mattie. “Five four three three?”

“Also no.”

“Five thee six?”

“You’ll never guess it.”

“Is the lift moving diagonally?”

“Yup. It can move in any of eight directions.”

“How?”

“Ask me again when we’re on the bridge and I’ll show you. It’s based on MULTI, but our version has a few extra tracks that run diagonally. It’s rope free, each lift carriage has it’s own linear motor drive and thanks to Tesla a large battery so it’s capable of moving on it’s own should something with the ship’s power go wrong.”

“What provides the ship’s power?”

“We have solar panels all over the ship hull and tons of batteries as a backup and jump starter for the reactors, but the main power source is an array of fusion reactors.”

“Fusion? Someone actually got it working?”

“Yup. You’ve met him too.”

“I have?”

“You both have. It’s Leo.”

Mattie exchanges a shocked glance with Renie. “My Leo?”

“Our Leo, Leon. He took the best of Tesla’s battery and solar technology, the Lockheed Martin reactor design and fused them together. To start a fusion reactor you need a lot of energy for a short duration. Partly to heat up and excite the fuel, more importantly to create the super powerful magnetic field to force the fuel into a tiny spot. We couldn’t plug the ship into the grid on Earth. What better than a huge array of large lithium cells charged by sunlight? The batteries started the first reactor, it started the others.”

“A neat solution. What propels the ship?”

“Ion thrusters. Lots of them. The front of the ship looks like the gaping mouth of a fish. Through that we collect all the gas we need to fuel the thrusters. The ship avoids large meteor clusters and hunts out gas clouds.”

“What’s the time needed to alter course?”

“About a week. Which is why the long range scanners are so vital.”

The three feel the lift decelerating.

‘Please don’t touch anything. Head bump talking only. Understood?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes.’

The doors open.

‘Ladies, no stepping past the line of wire that runs across the floor.’

‘Why?’

‘They’ll see you.’

‘What will?’

‘The vision enabled Redacted Existence Navigation Intelligence Engines.’

‘You what.. frigging hell! R.E.N.I.E. Renie is the ship’s autopilot?’

‘A team of them. Brilliant mathematicians. Renie volunteered for the post of science officer. She answered an advert we placed in Mathematics Monthly. When I heard her story my heart broke. I promised I’d give her a guaranteed place in the new world no matter what, introduce her to the family. After she met everyone she went on holiday. Things went a bit sideways and plans had to change fast.’

‘Change how?’

‘We got her backup done and shipped across from America via the Internet, she’d been on holiday.’ Tears well up. ‘She never made it back to the UK.’

Renie gets on tiptoe to look over the back of a chair. ‘I died?’

‘We had to assume so. The plane left America but never arrived at Heathrow. So your backup was copied to another, stripped of all sorts of things.’

‘Hence the Redacted Existence in the name.’

‘Yup. All the things that might take your focus off the mission.’

‘Is Renie my real name?’

‘God yes! We’ve not changed that. The acronym was the best I could come up with, sorry if it’s a bit lame.’

‘It’s not bad.’

Mattie gets next to Renie and looks over the chair at the thing sat on the seat. ‘Any other surprises on this scale?’

‘Yes. Nice ones though, I think. If you step over here I’ll show you models that explain how the lifts work.’

The two join her as she spins the 3D wire frame model on a monitor and zooms.

Renie bends and looks closer, ‘So the lift doors are on one giant wall, the lift runs on rails on a wall a few meters further back?’

‘For the main decks. To reach more remote places on the ship the lift heads into a tube then back out into walled space.’

‘The Wonkavator can go sideways, and slantways, and longways, and backways, and square ways, and front ways..’

‘It’s not the Wonkavator. We don’t do slantways. We do moving diagonally while keeping perpendicular to the gravity generator. Back in the lift please.’

Inside Zero taps for the storage deck and waits for the doors to close. “A redacted copy of me is sat on the middle chair. I’m focused on getting us to the new planet, along with my team of Renie.”

Mattie raised an eyebrow, “Are some of the details in the things you blocked?”

“Yup. Who’s on the bridge is a secret I’d like you to keep. I thought it important for you to know why you got the many Christmas gifts you did Renie.”

“Thanks.”

Mattie watched the lift display for a few seconds. They were zipping past decks at quite a speed. As it passed the junctions there was a tiny almost imperceptible judder. “The things sat on the seats, what are they?”

“A compute wafer.”

“I’ve seen videos of silicon chips being made, a wafer’s the size of a tea cup saucer.”

“We went for a side plate size. More computer power. You may have noticed how cold the room was. I must reward Danny somehow for the quality of the documentation he writes. Wrote. That was a life saver. We’d not have got much further than leave our own star system if I hadn’t been able to wire up some spares like that and get a virtual crew together. Sorry I hid that from you before Mattie. It wasn’t the best of times. In fact it was the shittiest of times. Having you all around is allowing me to finally admit to myself how things had gone.”

“No worries.”

~~~

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-26-1)


	26. Chapter 26

They step back onto the deck to find a lot of the smaller crates pushed aside to make room for some fun.

“Mattie! I’m driving!”

“So I see Teeny! Don’t scratch his car, it’s probably the only working one in the universe now.”

“I know, I am driving really slowly and Alister is keeping an eye on how close I get to things.”

“Alister?”

“The car.”

“Cool. Where are the others?”

Sophie breaks hard and stops. “Thanks Elon!”

“My pleasure.”

“Mum, you can have a go now.”

“Thanks Potato.”

Sophie jumps out and gets the seat forwards for her mother. “Come and see what Mitch has been doing! All three of you.”

“Okay..”

Sophie grabs her sister’s hand and pulls, “Nepal and his brother pushed the container Alister was in around to make an L shape, we stacked other crates up to make the other walls, Mitch is spinning clothes!”

“Eh? Why bother pushing things around?”

“You’ll see!”

Sophie gets to the gap, “Everyone decent?”

Niska giggles, “No, but I don’t care. Come in Sophie.”

Mattie follows her in to see Niska stood butt naked in the middle of the space, Mitch doing a sideways walk around her, his head facing her at all times.

“I won’t be a moment.”

Mattie crosses arms and gives Niska’s back a frown, “And that’s necessary why?”

“Hello Mattie, you’ll see.” Mitch completes the lap, “All good. You can get dressed now, feel free to join the others or stay and watch.”

Niska steps forwards, picks up her pyjama bottoms and steps into them, picks up the top and turns to the others as she puts it on. “I’ll stay thanks.”

Mitch leaps up onto one of the smaller crates, from there runs around the steps of crates and up onto the cargo container. He pauses momentarily then runs on, a line of web coming out of his spinnerets. When he’s at the opposite corner he anchors the line, runs to the next corner and starts another. When the second line is finished he runs out on it and hangs from the point of intersection. “Okay. The semi-sheer long dress with sleeves Niska?”

“Please.”

His spinnerets go into a blur. From the bottom of the spider a loop of material starts to appear and spin in the air.

Sophie points. ‘Nobody talk out loud, he’s concentrating.’

‘What’s he doing?’

‘Something between knitting and braiding Danny says.’

The loop now was already a good fifteen centimetres long.

‘And he gets up there so the thing he makes is pulled down by gravity?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why did he run new lines to hang from? What happened to the last ones?’

‘He thought he was finished so ate them.’

‘Oh. So he recycles the material?’

‘He does.’

‘Neat!’

Emily appeared in her top and leggings. ‘I’m saving the dress for a party. What do you think ladies?’ She does a twirl. ‘Not too revealing?’

Mattie checks out the change in density, it was quite an open weave on the back, got tighter as it got closer to her chest. ‘Not bad for a load of recycled cups.’

‘Niska’s is cups, mine is the heavy plastic white bags the kitchen towels were in. The Demi twins are in tops made from red T K Max or orange Sainsburys bags, black slacks made from rubble sacks.’

‘Rubble sacks?’

‘Frank had a box of them in his container.’

‘Aww, thanks Frank. I do like him. Is Barbara with him?’

‘Cindy and Barbara are talking to Demi and Demi about bikini bra top designs.’

Mattie pulls her chin in and frowns, ‘Oh for Pete’s sake! She wants to strut around in a bikini?’

‘No! No. She wants us to wear them under our outfits to _maximise our assets_. She says she was happy for the attention in the simulation, out here she needs to be taken seriously for whatever else she can do to help. Which means she’s not going to make her’s so prominent and ask that we do. And without makeup we’re all on a more even playing field. I like that word. Prominent. Having a quality that thrusts itself into attention.’

Mitch climbs down, “One dress, I hope I got the tension right Niska.”

Niska strips off, accepts the dress and turns it upside down, gets arms in through the bottom, gets it over her head. Moments later it’s being pulled down in stages. “Mattie, Emily, could you give me a hand please, there’s no zip.”

Emily races forwards, “Sure hun.”

Mitch watches, “Don’t pull too hard, it might rip. You might need some soapy water to help get it on.”

Niska pulls her shoulders in tight and clenches her bottom. “I could take a shower if needed?”

~~~

Danny followed Nepal to another medium sized crate on the deck above, “There has to be a shopping level somewhere on this ship. Why would you have so many of the same gold necklaces otherwise?”

“True. And why a coffee bean pendant? 

Danny lied. “I have no idea. Elon and Dad’s containers were the only ones marked with something recognisable. I guess the QR codes are to make shipping people less inclined to try stealing things. You don’t know if you’ve got things of great value or a mass of tea spoons.”

“Also true.” Nepal rips the lid off. “This one’s for you.”

“What is it?”

“Take a look.”

“Oh my good GOD! Alfie! And a mass of filament in silica beads to keep it good! Oh my days! I can print the ladies some shoes!”

“You’ve got this and the first thing you think of is shoes?”

“You have much to learn young synth. Keep your lady sweet I say..”

“When did you make it?”

“A while into the simulation and after the backup trim in the real world I guess. But I’d had the plans in my head for years. One of those _if I get the time and cash_ sorts of things. I eventually got both of them in both by the looks of it.”

“Good for you. How are you going to make the shoes the right sizes?”

“Take lots and lots of measurements? Okay, QR code, contents and crate location memorised, next please mate.”

~~~

Niska puts her hands on her thighs and did a little seductive wiggle. “How does it look?”

Emily put her tongue in her cheek and pouted. ‘Hot chick! Astrid’s going to love it.’

“Thanks. Thank you Mitch.”

“You’re welcome Niska. Is that the last now?”

Emily looks at Mattie, Zero and Renie, “You’re the last to see what he can do. Anything you’d like?”

Zero shakes her head, “I’m good with my camouflage dress for the moment thanks.”

Mattie runs a hand over her heavy robe. “The build clothes do tone down the look. What would you suggest? Nothing too tight though. Something baggy.”

Emily gets her head back and frowns at her, “Baggy? Babes, you’ve got a good figure, why do you always want to hide it?”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. You might not be 32DD like double Demi and have a thin waist like us but it’s still a great figure.”

“I know you’re just..”

“Shut up! In the nicest possible way shut up! Mitch, make her a dress like Niska’s with built in support for her chest.”

“How?”

“Enable your WiFi again, I’ll share some memories.”

Mattie shakes her head, “I prefer..”

“Shush! If you really don’t like it then Mitch can recycle it.”

“But..”

“Mattie! Stop!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll get what you want _if_ Renie goes first.”

“Me? Why me?”

Mattie sniggers, “It gives you all more time to get distracted and for me to run away.”

James Nine steps up behind them. “Nice outfit Emily, why does Mattie want to run away?”

~~~

Nepal opens another crate. “Next we have.. personal possessions. Do you recognise anything in here? It’s a bit of a jumbled mess.”

Danny examines the sides and reaches in to grab a Snappy Snaps envelope. “It looks like this crate got rolled.” The envelope is opened and photos checked. “Toby’s. Definitely Toby’s.” The envelope is replaced. “Next.”

There’s a splintering sound as the next is opened.

“That didn’t sound good.”

Nepal nods. “Bad wood. This one is a ladies. Very neatly packed.”

Danny picks up a flat rectangular bubble wrapped something and undoes it. A silver photo frame had a picture of a beaming Laura holding twins. “Laura’s I think.” He checks a few more things. “Yup, definitely Mrs Hawkins.”

Nepal looks at the wide framed photo in Danny’s hand. “Five children. They must have kept her busy at that age. From their sizes I’m guessing left to right that’s Sophie, Toby, Mattie and Ruby, Carl.”

Danny’s face screws up, “ _Who_?”

“He was the black sheep of the family, a nasty bit of work.”

“Was?”

“He died.”

“I’ve never heard them mention his name. Not even once. There’s a lot of random stuff in here.”

“Very random. Okay, this one’s logged, next row.”

~~~

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-27-1)


	27. Chapter 27

Mattie sighed in her head. Other Mattie she’d visited in the simulations did different things. One had become a fashion model. That didn’t help her, she wasn’t comfortable with the dress. Showing Leo her curves in private was one thing, showing them to everyone here was another. It wasn’t casual daywear, not her thing.”

“I can read your face babes. You’re not happy with it are you?”

“Sorry Ems, it’s just..”

“Danny said Leo was crazy about your high cut swimsuit in Orlando.”

“Yes but..”

“But what?”

“I always wanted to be known for what’s up here.” Mattie taps her head.

Zero wraps arms around her. “And I, we, you, us, _were_. We didn’t become Earth President for our looks.”

“How did that happen exactly?”

Zero loosens her hug a little. “I got invited by Elon to attend a global climate change conference with world leaders. I met Leonardo and Sir David Attenborough there. Don’t tell Leo, what a dish!”

“Leonardo or David?”

“LOL! Leo! David’s adorable and a national treasure but not a exactly a dish. We owe the research team he fronts a huge debt of thanks, they were the ones that tipped us off to the rapid changes, got the big push going at the estate with the last of the lift carriage builds. They’ll all be back.”

“Why did you plant the sky lift in my dreams?”

“Tinkering, helping you get onto the path to fix the catch twenty two. And before you ask, no there wasn’t fate, you took your own path, just steered a little.”

“Just the weird hypnotism like thing?”

“Yes.”

“So you all built your version of the sky lift, got invited to a conference..”

“Everyone there got asked to make a short presentation. I wasn’t expecting it, spent ten minutes in a panic before I started mind mapping my thoughts. With it I convinced a majority of the world leaders there that it was best to build a ship. To backup and save mankind with David’s technology, get the backups off planet before it became too late. We’d also collect seeds and DNA from whatever animals we could. Things were clearly going to get worse over the coming years. None of them had the balls to take the roll of overseer on so I cheekily offered. I was hoping it would get a laugh and have one of them man up. I almost fainted when they agreed to it. And then gave _me_ the title. Me! I think they all wanted a scapegoat if things went pear-shaped.”

“They didn’t think you were up to the job?”

“Many were sceptical. I’d done AI and stuff at Uni, no politics or economics. The working Sky Lift had taken them all by surprise. With Leo, Elon and David backing me it went okay. I might have had the label but it was very much a team effort.”

“Which Leo?”

Zero smiles with the memories flooding back. “Both actually. Leonardo on the saving people, animals and plants front with Sir David, Leo on the power for the ship, getting the six CTD shipped around the world and a number of other things to do with ship construction. He was really proud of how things went, was so excited for inspection day.” Tears well up. “David was so frail, could hardly walk. I think we need to bring him back when a build machine is on the surface of our new home. Back to here and now. You’ve got a nice body, enjoy it.”

“Ruby gives me similar lectures, but she..”

“Frigging hell _please_ stop! I’ll call all the men over and they can rate..”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Okay. All the women then.”

Mattie wriggles free, grabs the robe. “Neither thanks!”

Mitch tracks around her to block the exit. “I think you look lovely. But what would I know, I’m just an oversized AI spider robot. If you don’t like it I can make you something else?”

“Um.. I do like it. In fact I love it. It’s just not the sort of thing I’d wear in front of the others. With Leo on a date, sure, not family. Unless there’s a good party? Then I might.”

Emily leans against Mitch. “What would you prefer? If you say baggy tracky I’ll scream.”

“Get ready to scream then. Baggy tshirt and tracky bottoms.”

Emily pretends to get ready to scream then stops and frowns. “If Leonardo’s backed up where are the things he and David saved?”

~~~

Niska dance slinks along the corridor with arms above her head, a memory of a Berlin club tune playing in her mind. “Nice knee length socks, what did Mitch spin those out of?”

Astrid leans against the bedroom door frame. “Waitrose bag for life bags. Sophie has Fee for one hour only, walk faster.”

“What are the rooms like?”

“According to the folder in a draw this is one of several senior crew quarters. It’ll do. If Leo finds better we can move. Walk faster!”

“What’s the rush?”

“I’m in a new body. You too. I want to know if Samantha is telling the truth.”

“What did she say?”

“Enough. I want to make love to you.”

“Any books by dead white guys in there? Second first date and all.”

Astrid laughs loudly, “Scheiß Bücher! All underwater and billions of miles away now. You and Odi can write new ones, be philosopher and historian. _After_ we both realise we were half asleep for the last many years and try the bed.”

“Last few..”

“I’m German not English. Let us both speak a language that needs no words.” She smiles seductively and licks her top lip.

“On the subject of speaking, we both need to have words with Fee.”

“Why? What has she done?”

“I was told that earlier she was making sucking noises and looking at Demi as if she was a fast charge synth wet nurse.”

“Oh dear. She needs to understand that breast size has no impact on charge rate.”

~~~

Mattie swayed slowly from side to side, the robe bottom slapping against her ankles. “If he’s as responsible as Elon for getting us all here I say he gets built in the next batch with Pete, Karen and Sam.”

“You’re both changing the subject!”

“We can go back to clothes in a moment. This ship is frigging _massive_. I’m betting these guys helped raise millions, no, _billions_ to save the inhabitants of Earth.”

“More, encouraged friends to help fund it. And get practically every airline and aerospace firm involved in building it. Total cost one point two trillion Euros. But why are _you_ so keen to see him built?”

“Why are you so keen _not to_?”

~~~

Astrid pulls her oversized t-shirt dress off and rolls Niska’s dress up, pulls it up over her head.

Niska smiles, “That came off a lot easier than it went on.”

“You remember when we met in Berlin, you were standing by the speakers..”

“Of course.”

“I’m trying to share something with you. After you left Berlin I went back to the club. I was feeling lonely. With a room full of people I still felt alone. The DJ played part of a song I found hypnotic. I recorded it and had the doorman help me Shazam it. It was Eagle I Stallian featuring Brandon Mignacca, Max Freegrant Remix of Connection Made.”

“I’m not familiar with the track.”

Astrid sings, “ _Here we go! Let my eyes strike yours. Call it fate, connection made. I felt so cold, when I wasn't yours. I call it fate, connection made_.” She gently pushes Niska closer to the bed. “And you know the funny part?”

“Obviously not..”

“I never made the connection until this moment! Connection made! The artwork is a cartoon character dressed in blue with a sign saying Free WiFi, a WiFi symbol over their head. Like we head bump!”

Niska smiles and shakes her head, kisses her partner. ‘The simple things that amuse you.’

Astrid sticks her tongue in Niska’s mouth, ‘Like this?’

‘Cheeky..’

Astrid grabs Niska’s bottom with both hands as they fall towards the bed, Niska being spun around so she lands on top. ‘Das ist cheeky.’

‘You like my bottom don’t you?’

Astrid runs her hands ever so gently over Niska’s buttocks. ‘I do.’

‘Enough to make a permanent connection, be my WiFi Wifey?’

‘I do!’

~~~

Laura kept stirring her cold coffee, kept her gaze on Emily’s father Prince James and his new partner Sandra.

James cracks. “Laura. For the _third time_ , what is wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“I may not be the universe’s only lawyer, but it doesn’t take much to see the guilty verdict you’re giving us.”

“I’m a lawyer, not a judge.”

“We don’t have a judge so you’re the top of the legal system now.” He catches her glance microscopically towards Sandra. “It’s not me is it?”

“No.”

“What has Sandra done?”

Laura puts elbows on the table and forehead on hands. “When did you first meet?”

“When I had my synth leg surgery.”

“In the simulation.”

“I had the accident in there, so yes, what is your point?”

Laura looks up, “Sandra is a post awakening Mia fork!”

“But she existed before the simulation.”

“As Sandra. But it wasn’t an old backup that was restored was it?”

James hesitates. “No. It wasn’t. I still don’t see where you’re heading with this?”

“My Michael! No Mia forks were supposed to be made. That’s what Zero said! It’s not bloody fair! Why do _you_ get your partner back and I don’t! I’m not a prince or millionaire, is that it?”

Sandra places a hand on his, “Tell them.”

“I can’t. I promised.”

“Who’s it going to hurt?”

“Everyone.”

Laura sat upright fast. “That’s an admission of guilt if ever I heard one!”

~~~

Astrid pulled the thin cotton sheet up over them both and looked at Niska in the soft diffused light. “Connection made. Mein Gott, du bist wunderschön.”

Niska pulls Astrid closer, ‘You’re beautiful too. Connection made.’ Her hand heads south again. ‘When I was first meeting people after escaping I pretended my name was Candy. Now we both taste like it.’

Astrid arches her back a little as Niska’s fingers explore. ‘We were half asleep in the simulation for sure.’ She wriggles a little and gently nibbles on Niska’s earlobe. ‘Wie fühlt sich das an?’

Niska’s free arm was on the pillows, it’s moved, her fingers gently caress the back of Astrid’s head. ‘It feels.. incredible.’

‘Better than any of those dead white guys could have imagined?’

‘Much better!’

Astrid moves a hand to Niska’s belly and draws small circles with a fingertip, makes the circles slowly head downwards.

~~~

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-28-1)


	28. Chapter 28

Zero stood silent and still. As did Mattie.

Emily grew impatient. “What are you both up to? Is this some sort of standoff? So what if you had a short crush on Leonardo? He’s had more model girlfriends than I’ve had cups of sugar water. And that’s a few today already.” She watches the two a few seconds longer. “Shall I ask Danny to find charge coils? You’ll eventually run flat unless you move. Mitch, I’m going up a deck to find Danny.”

Mitch moves to unblock the entrance to their container and crate pen. “I’ll keep watch.”

“Thanks Babes.”

~~~

Ship’s Mitch held on tight as Radiant ran. “Well done you! I thought one of the astronauts would have found it.”

“They’re rocket men. Or lunar lander men.”

“Shall we bump the news?”

“No, let’s tell Leo first. Hold super tight!” She slaps her left hand on the wall and uses the friction to help spin her into a new direction. “I want him to see first.”

“Okay.”

Radiant thinks about her charge level and slows a little. “I better get some more sugar water soon.”

“Or you can rest on the medical bed, it’s far faster.”

“You didn’t know about it before did you?”

“I didn’t dare venture off Mattie’s deck.”

“Why?”

“Until you all came who’d rescue me if something went wrong?”

Radiant slows more. “Leo! Guess what I found!”

He closes the doors to a metal cupboard. “Something good from the look on your face. The gym?”

“No.”

“Shops?”

“No.”

“Better bedrooms?”

“No.”

“What?”

“The shuttles! There’s a small one, medium and really big one!”

Leo grins, “John, Ruby, shall we go see?”

John puts the device he was checking out back on a shelf and closes the door. “Sure. Toby must have been working super hard to get everything onboard, died before he could give her the inventory. All that effort and she didn’t know.”

Ruby puts an arm around him, “Maybe she was busy doing other things. You know, like delegating?”

~~~

The Mattie vs Zero stare competition in the container and crate pen continued.

““Mitch Babes?”

“Back already Emily?”

“It’s me Babes, Peaches.”

“Sorry, I should pay attention to tone not just words.”

She steps around him, is followed by Demi, Demi, Cindy and Mario. “Are you still making things? Only Danny told Mario about some bags they found upstairs.”

“I can make you something, what would you like?”

“They found pink Superdrug bags, a Princess Peaches dress?” She bumps a design.

“Oh. You’d need something underneath to give the skirt that shape.”

Mario puts an arm around her waist, “Leave that to me mate. Dans found a crate with Alfie.”

“Alfie?”

“Our 3D printing, laser cutting and milling machine.”

~~~

Astrid moves her finger faster and faster. Niska places her hand over the top of Astrid’s to slow things, Astrid works against it. ‘Lass es geschehen.’

Niska stops fighting it and gets closer, her body tenses as a wave of powerful orgasms hit. She whimpers.

Astrid keeps going, ‘It feels good yes?’

Niska answers with more kissing.

Astrid giggles.

‘What?’

‘The British, they use hump as an alternative word for sex don’t they?’

‘Yes?’

‘Dead white guys can’t hump.’

‘That’s funny?’

‘White Men Can't Jump?’

‘Says who?’

‘Who? It’s a film name.’

‘I’ve not seen it.’

Astrid stops kissing and moves to see her face. “You lived a sheltered life. We could have dates back in the simulation, some Netflix and chill.”

“I’ve heard about that phrase.”

“The euphemism?”

Niska nods.

Astrid gets closer and resumes kissing. ‘Netflix und ficken.’

Niska wriggles to the bottom of the large bed and kisses Astrid’s belly on the way down, ‘Candy wants candy.’

‘Niska?’

Niska gently parts Astrid’s legs and kisses, inserts a wet finger and gently licks.

‘Mein Gott!’

‘Connection made?’

Astrid arches her back and grabs fistfuls of the bed sheet, ‘Connection made!’

~~~

Laura looked sternly at Prince James. “The privilege of wealth.”

“Past wealth. Here I have nothing but friends, family and the cloth on my back. And a few keepsakes in my crate.”

“And Sandra.”

“I sold everything I had to do my bit to help fund this ship. All my firms, my homes, stocks, jewels, vintage wines, race horses, boat, airplane. _Everything_.”

“You know this how?”

“The leather bound diary in my mostly empty crate. Do you know how much this ship cost to build?”

“No. Why would I?”

“One point two trillion Euros. We were making it to save life on Earth. Others wanted to profit from it, thought they could get rich quick. People like..”

Sandra squeezes his hand tight. ‘Don’t!’

‘She needs to know about Carl.’

‘No she doesn’t!’

‘She does.’

‘If you tell her it will gain nothing. She’ll be upset. If you tell her I’m leaving you.’

‘What?’

‘You heard me.’

Laura looks from Sandra to James and back. “People like?”

“Edwin.”

~~~

Just as the group enter the shuttle hanger the door to the largest one opens up and Red Niska walks out. “Hi!”

Radiant slows, “Auntie Red?”

“The men are inside working through the manuals figuring out how to fly them. Why the look?”

“I thought I was the first to find them.”

“Sorry. Wrench found them, got the team together. Come and have a look.”

Inside the shuttle they find all the astronauts, Elon and Max Tegmark.

Elon gets up, “Have a seat, just don’t touch anything on the control panel.”

“Why?”

“The manual says there’s an emergency launch button, we’re still working out which one that might be.”

“Are you going to fly it today?”

“Hell no! We’d be left behind. They’re fast, but not as fast as the ship. They’re for use when the ship is in orbit or has slowed sufficiently.”

“Oh.” Radiant sits in the oversized chair, feels like a small doll. “Why not ask a James about the button?”

“Why James?”

“This seat is made to fit him isn’t it?”

Ron slaps his forehead, “We failed gentlemen. Something that obvious escaped us and we went straight to the manuals.”

Spider has a good laugh, “ _We?_ What do you mean _we_? You’re supposed to be the ace engineer, why didn’t you spot it?”

“I’m a mechanical and electrical engineer. A rocket scientist.”

“And if James isn’t mechanical and electrical, as we are now, what is he?”

~~~

Laura sipped some of her cold coffee and squints at Sandra. “You’ve still not made it clear why I can’t have my Michael back. What are you not saying and how can it hurt _everyone_?”

~~~

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-29-1)


	29. Chapter 29

Mia pretends to look mildly confused. “You did?”

Toby climbs onto the bed and passes her a mug of hot coco. “Sure, I’m not going to lie about it. Remember that first breakfast with the whole family sat together, when Mats called me Crusty Sheets?”

“Yes. My first full day with you as Anita.”

“Back then I was having lots of sex,” he chuckles, “although sadly I was the only one in the room. Cheers.”

“Thank you dear. I understand, humans at that age and changes in hormones, a sexual awakening. It’s a more enjoyable activity as a couple.”

“It is. Mats was a total hypocrite. The gold coffee bean pendant she and Emily wore this year, the year it is here now, I knew what it signified, just didn’t make a big thing out of it. Nibbles?” He holds out an open box of luxury biscuits.

“Yes please! I know they’re not real but they taste _so good_.”

“Yeah, totally.”

“What does it signify?”

“You want to join their club?”

“I’d like to know what it signifies. Show me.”

“You mean tell?”

“I mean show.”

Toby puts down his mug, “Put your coco down a moment then.”

“Okay Toby.”

Toby holds her hand, gently pulls it under the bedding, holds and moves the end of her index finger.

Mia’s eyes open wide, “Toby Hawkins!”

He recoils, “Jesus! You did say show!”

“Calm down Toby”, Mia grabs his hand and pulls it back, rests it on her leg. “It was a bit of a shock. You found it straight away, no clumsy hunting.”

“I’m a synth now, I don’t forget. And I know your beautiful body extremely well.”

Mia rolls onto her side, nibbles the biscuit and grins, “Can I blindfold you and test you on that Toby?”

“Um.. fifty shades of Toby? If you want. If you take what I just did and do it yourself, that’s what the thing signifies.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. It’s nicknamed the bean flick.”

“Why?”

“Think of a small coffee bean shape.”

“Because of.. oh. I see. I’d rather wait until we could be together again.”

“Really?”

“Of course Toby.” Her expression changes. “When I went to collect things for a dark wash and Mattie called out go away Dad I’m..”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s it. You know it’s only the two of us here, you don’t need to keep putting my name on the end of things.”

“No, but I like to Toby. I love the sound Toby.” She giggles and takes a good bite out of the biscuit. ‘Toby Toby Toby.’

‘Mia amore.’

“We’ve still not found out what the ship is officially called. With all the love making going on onboard maybe we should rename it Choose Love.”

Toby flops onto his back, looks at the ceiling and has a good laugh. “I hadn’t thought of it like that. Technically we _are_ still onboard. Just mentally in the compute deck, in wafers bathed in cooling oil. I wonder if we could work out which wafers we’re in, get Mats to do some cracking on a universal scale?”

Mia rests a leg over his, “To do what?”

“Stop global warming, get the shit head money grabbing politicians out, make this a nice world people can visit for a holiday while we’re stuck on the ship. You know, Total Recall style. Minus all the fighting and pollution.”

“Total Recall?”

“You’ve never watched it?”

Mia did a quick Internet search. “No. Arnold or Colin?”

“Either. They’re both good in their own way.”

Mia stretches and reaches for the TV remote. “I wonder how all the data is stored on the ship? Is there one common archive with metadata to say which multiverses can see which elements?”

“Like what?”

“If I Google for your favourite lemon drizzle cake how many worlds can see the same recipe as me? How many can see these films? In some worlds do they only have the original?”

Toby shrugs, “Not a clue. It would be cool to find out. And what they’ve got that we don’t.”

Mia turns on the TV and watches him, recalls a private conversation with their Mattie about BBS Mattie. Toby finding _those_ films or videos? No way. He may have enjoyed a certain type of video in the past, but seeing those, they could mess him up mentally. She liked him as he was now. She’d have words with Mattie and Zero when back, see what could be deleted, or if not deleted somehow protected to prevent anyone else accidentally viewing them. “The more time I spend with you the more like an original human I feel. And I don’t mean just in the bedroom. The three must have done a lot of research to build bodies so..”

“Um.. Mia?”

“Toby?”

“Are you listening to this?”

Mia turned her attention to the Channel 4 News, reads the text at the bottom and listens for a second. “No! No! This can’t be happening!”

~~~

Laura was about to storm off. The inactive body of Toby sat at another table springs into life and stands up. “Toby? I thought you were going to be away for a whole day?”

“We were. Where’s that bloody stupid spider?”

“Big or little?”

“Little. Zero’s.”

“With Radiant.”

Toby bumps. “Deck D three.” He holds a hand out for Mia’s as she wakes. “Deck D three.”

“Okay.”

Laura stands and grabs her coffee, “I’ll come with you.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

Instead of snapping at his _whatever_ she takes another sip of coffee and follows silently. At the lift doors their body language speaks volumes. “Did something happen back at the estate?”

The doors open and Toby and Mia step in. “You could say Mum. We got a nasty surprise.”

“But the estate itself is fine?” Laura’s attention snaps back as the doors begin to close.

“Yeah, yeah, totally. The army of James are wondering when they can visit, they’ve had to turn away a few visitors but everything’s good.” With his mother inside he taps the deck number in. “That might not be the case soon though.”

~~~

Ruby hangs on John’s shoulders as they watched the others working out shuttle controls, “The gem you gave me in the simulation, was it based on something real do you think?”

“Very much. Danny and Nepal have found crates with other’s possessions. It sounds like they’re finding things for most other people here. I’m not holding out much hope for them finding one for me.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know you before Zero’s backup trim date. I knew Cindy Bexley, Neural Lace expert, not the Ruby Hawkins I’d have needed to know to be part of the extended family. Ruby wouldn’t have been washed out to sea, been in a coma, had Arakawa restore dead Cindy’s Neural Lace data into Ruby’s body, create the personality blend here with me now.”

“Oh well. It’s a shame if that’s gone.”

~~~

Toby walked at a pace, Mia one step behind.

Laura followed as best she could. The dress she’d been spun by Big Mitch was beautiful, though somewhat restrictive. “Slow down a little please Toby.”

“Speed up a little please Mum.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not in a dress.”

Toby stops and sighs. “Fashion over practicality.”

Laura flashes a smile, “I do look good though right?”

Mia takes her hand, “You look lovely Laura.”

“Thank you Mia. It’s nice to know _someone_ appreciates it.”

“Why were you looking so.. frosty in the restaurant?”

“Prince James got his Sandra, I don’t get Michael for some reason. There’s a big secret they’re holding back, something that could upset everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“So they say.”

They turn the corner into the shuttle bay.

Toby whistles. “Impressive.” He bumps.

Radiant meets them on the ramp. “Toby?”

“Hiya. I need to talk to Mitch.”

Mitch shifts uneasily. “Is something wrong? You could have spoken over WiFi?”

“I wanted you to see the anger on my face.”

“Oh. What’s happened?”

“Ed! That’s what bloody happened! You pushed Ed back into the wrong world!”

“I pushed Ed back into the world with Mia.”

“Our world you dozy twat! Now there’s two of them. The original loser, and one wondering why his successful restaurant is suddenly now a parking lot, his mother dead not alive and doing well in a better care home! And wondering where Mia’s gone!”

“But..”

“WHAT!”

“I used the world reference for his build. He went back to the world he came from.”

“Double check the data! We’ve just come from our world, the news had him doing a telephone interview. Telling the world about this ship!”

“Shit.”

Leo had heard the raised voice of Toby and come to see what the problem was. “What’s going on?”

“This Muppet send Ed back into the wrong world!”

Laura steps to Radiant and turns to look at Toby. “As a defence lawyer I need to see all of the facts.”

“Mum!”

“What if he did his job properly and it was the system that was wrong?”

“But Mum!”

“What if you’d been in charge of doing the job, did it just as you’d been instructed and it went wrong?”

Toby’s shoulders drop. “Fucking hell. Where’s Zero?”

Mitch raises himself up a little. “With the other me.”

~~~

Astrid shakes again. Their hot shower had been lovely. “No towels, maybe they’re in a crate?”

“Maybe.”

“Does my hair look okay?”

“Lovely.”

They share a kiss.

Niska picks up the rolled up dress, “Can you help me get this back on?”

“Of course. Wifey.”

“Thank you wifey.” Niska gets it over her head and gives Astrid a questioning look. “Please say we’ll both be lipsticks, neither of us shave our heads and look like men. If I wanted someone that looked like a man I’d have picked a man.”

Astrid grins, “Cut all this lovely hair off? Never! I too would have picked a man if I wanted someone who looked like a man. Lipsticks?”

“A phrase the humans made. Lipstick lesbian, they like fashion, being women.”

“Ah.” Astrid unrolls the dress over Niska’s chest, bends at the knees to bring it lower. “I like being a woman. And don’t you dare cut your hair.” She gets to her knees and kisses Niska’s belly. ‘Colouring is okay. I think you’d look good with champagne pink.’

‘Pink?’

‘I think it is also called baby pink.’

‘Baby pink. I’ve been red, I could try that. If someone can work out how to make a hair dye. Did you want to go back to bed?’

‘No, I need to get some sugar water in a bit.’

‘Then stop your kissing. It’s making me want to start all over again.’

Astrid gently rolls the dress down more. “Let’s get a drink and see what the others are up to.”

~~~

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-30-1)


	30. Chapter 30

Toby steps onto the deck. “Nis?” She and Astrid were a few feet ahead.

She stops and turns, “Hello Toby. What’s wrong?”

“World indexes maybe.”

Mia, Laura and Radiant step out. They didn’t look happy.

Niska frowns, “Radiant Kiss, are you in trouble?”

“No mother, I’m just carrying Mitch.”

“Why do you all look like you’re under a rain cloud?”

Mia bumps memories.

“Oh! Not nice.”

Laura steps on, “We’re down here to find Zero.”

“So are we.”

~~~

Demi Original takes the latest creation from Mitch and checks it for strength. “Good workmanship! Sorry, spidership. Mattie, if you slip the dress off..”

Mattie finally breaks her stare off. “Here, in front of everyone? No way.”

“We’ll all turn our backs.”

“Peaches might have been comfortable changing like that. Once was enough for me. I’m not doing it again.”

“Then step into the container.”

Mattie takes the simple bikini bra top Mitch had spun from Demi and squints at Zero. She’d never had anyone force her to wear things she wasn’t comfortable with before. Best to get it over and done with, be allowed to go do something more interesting. “You’ll have to give me a while.”

“No running away?”

“What’s the point, you’d only catch me.” Mattie steps to the gap to get out as Niska and Astrid arrive. “Hiya.”

“Hello Mattie. That looks nice, may we see?”

Mattie holds the top out.

Niska takes it and turns it over, checks the strength. “Very nice.”

Radiant and the others join them. Niska passes it to Ruby, “One of these would give you a lot of support.”

Mattie puts hands up and does a pushing motion, “Take it and try it Ruby.”

“It’s made for you. I’d want mine in red.” It’s handed back with a smile. “Were you about to try it on?”

“Try it on as in palm it off or actually wear it?”

“Wear it.”

“Yeah, these fashionista bullies won’t let me wear something baggy.”

Emily folds arms, “It’s not that we won’t babes, we just want you to see how freaking gorgeous you’ll be in this.”

“Leo likes me as I am.”

“And Danny liked me as I was. He likes me even more all dressed up.”

“I’m not Leo’s doll.”

“I didn’t say you were babes.”

Princess Peaches hitches the skirt of her pink dress and gets closer to Mattie. “Babes, Leo loves you, we all know that. Is there anything wrong with catching his eye a little more?”

“No. It’s everyone else’s eyes I’m worried about. Wait here, I promise I won’t run. I’ll bang on the container wall at intervals so you know I’m still in there.” Mattie steps away.

Demi looks at another of the tops Mitch had spun. “This one looks like it’s for Samantha? Am I right?”

Mitch does a whole body nod. “That’s right.”

“And these for Ruby, Mats and Scarlet.”

“Same size as Mattie, correct.”

“And these?”

Thud.

“I’ll get them to their owners, I think Toby needs to say something.”

“Yes mate. Thanks. Zero. You might have a bug in your system.”

“In which system?”

“The one that pulls people out of the simulations and pushes them back.”

“Mitch? What’s happened?”

“I followed protocol I swear!”

“You usually do. What’s gone wrong?”

Mia folds her arms. “Ed.”

“The guy that was running around the ship?”

Thud.

“The same.”

“What about him?”

“He’s back in the simulations. Only in _our_ world not his.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake Mitch!”

“I used the right reference I swear! Right out of the build job XML on the build server he came from!”

Zero gives Mia a doubting look. “You’re sure?”

“He was just on a news report. Wondering why the world he left has suddenly changed. He’s got over three million new followers on social media in an hour if the report is to believed.”

“Frigging hell! Mitch, we need to go debug this. Now.”

“Go where?”

“Anywhere with terminals. I want to see the data on a screen with my own eyes, not in my head.”

~~~

Danny reaches into another half full crate and has a good rummage. “This one’s Sophie’s.” He stands, “Hello, in ninja stealth mode are you?”

Sandra smiles, “No noisy shoes. Yet. When you spoke to James earlier about his crate you said you’d found your machine?”

“Alfie? Yeah.”

“Can it do really fine detail?”

“Sure. What do you want made?”

“Nothing. We want something destroyed.”

“Eh? Fine detail destruction?”

“We need some of the ink in the journal erased.”

“Why?”

“James wrote things he regrets, things that could spoil things here. _Will_ spoil things here.”

“The milling can do fine steps, but to a page? How do we keep it flat?”

Sandra steps around the crate and grabs his head, kisses him on the forehead. “You’re an inventor. Invent. Just do it quickly please. Before anyone else gets to see it.”

“Anyone in particular?”

“Laura.”

“Because she’s the lawyer?”

“Because it’s about her family.”

“Oh. If I make something you can control, can you do it? If it’s bad news I’d rather not know.” “We can.”

~~~

Flash held Max’s hand as they strolled behind Fred and Rose. “Do you think the new world will have flowers?”

“I hope so. If not we’ll have to grow our own.”

“Grow how?”

“With the seed bank.”

“There’s a seed bank?”

“Samantha and Nepal found it. On the deck with refrigerators for the DNA samples.”

Rose stops and turns to see them. “DNA? What’s it for?”

“To bring back the animals.”

“From DNA?”

“One day, hopefully.”

Flash rubs Max’s thumb with hers.

He gives her a warm smile. “A penny for your thoughts?”

“If you could only bring back one type of flower, which would you pick?”

“The most beautiful and fragrant rose. I’d use some to make you a perfume. When not able to be in the garden I’d be reminded of it when with you.”

Rose turned to see them, “A rose is a good choice. Don’t people make new roses by taking cuttings?”

Max nods, “They can. It’s a shortcut. Allowing them to grow rose hips gets you the seeds.”

“Rose hip? I thought that was a fruit people made herbal teas from?”

“A fruit of the rose, yes.”

“Roses bear fruit? You can tell I wasn’t a gardener. Maybe you can both teach me.”

Max nods again. “As guardians of our new home we’ll have to be very careful.”

Flash looks puzzled. “Careful in which way?”

“The planet may be teaming with life of it’s own, introduction of a species of plant from our Earth may kill off a plant that had been successful for many thousands or millions of years.”

“Plants kill other plants?”

“The rubus fruticosus, blackberry or bramble, for example, is a thorny plant that spreads wide and often grows to heights of six or more feet unaided. It would block the light from any other species that was trying to share the same land. Plants need light to grow.”

Fred turns to see them all. “My little brother has clearly been doing his homework.”

“Thanks to a curiosity started by Flash.” Max recalls the day at the train carriages, Flash’s cheese sandwich and grazed knee comment that was followed with a kiss. The universe had been kind in bringing them both together. He cared not that it was in a simulation. What was once just bits and bytes was now physical. He was real. A Pinocchio of the digital age.

~~~

Mattie thumps the side of the shipping container again and blows Leo a kiss. ‘Thanks Bunny.’

‘I couldn’t ignore your bump for help now could I? I think I set a new Energiser Bunny record with my running, possibly faster than our Max. I had others help me locate her crate. It was that or go and check her room. Are you sure she’ll be okay with it?’

Mattie tied the bikini bra top straps behind her neck. ‘I’m wearing this, if she wants more.. tough. How’s that?’

Leo gives an approving look. ‘Perfect.’ He throws her a black polo neck jumper and takes a careful step backwards. ‘Be quick, I hear footsteps.’

‘From which direction?’ Mattie gets arms in fast and pulls it over her head.

‘The space Mitch was spinning in.’ He waits a second for her to pull it down fully and underarm throws her pink dungarees. ‘I’ll go intercept them.’

‘Thanks Bunny.’

~~~

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-31-1)


	31. Chapter 31

Zero sat in the empty library and reviewed code. Mitch was sat on the table, keeping himself just out of thumping range. It didn’t make sense. The log files showed that Ed had been returned to where he came from. It also showed that he’d been sent to every other world including Mattie’s. But the code Mitch called couldn’t do that. Here was the code block, it took a single parameter, the world number. For Ed to get copied into others someone had to do it manually or an ad-hoc script. And with no trace in the logs they had to have done it and covered their tracks. She knew of only one person nasty and skilled enough to do that. And the only way she could be onboard was.. shit. Friends. “Mitch, climb aboard, we’re going to the restaurant.”

“So it wasn’t something I did?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I have a pretty good idea. I want everyone there.”

“I’ll broad..”

“NO!”

“You don’t want me to broadcast bump to all?”

“No. Invitations are to be spoken only. Very very quietly. And only to people known by the person whispering. I want you to visit all of the build machines, check on levels of materials.”

He scurries up her arm and onto a shoulder. “Why?”

“To work out how many builds they’ve done.”

“We can tell that from the logs.”

“We need to assume the logs will have been tampered with.”

“Oh. That’s worrying.”

“We can do a head count, compare it to a build count.”

“I want protection then. Nepal?”

“Sure.”

“And a fresh backup incase things go wrong.”

“Totally.”

~~~

Mattie did a twirl. “I _am_ wearing a Mitch creation, the bra. Under one of Zero’s outfits. And I am her. Sort of. So this is mine too. A bit of a stretch but hopefully she’ll understand.”

Emily shakes her head and smiles, “It does suit you. I’m a little disappointed babes, but only a little.”

Laura smiles at her daughter. “If that’s what you’re comfortable in, then that’s what you should wear.”

“Thanks Mum. Why were you looking so angry earlier?”

“Sandra and Michael. One’s here, the other not.”

“I’ll have words.”

“Thank you dear.”

“Was that it?”

“There’s a secret she and James are keeping from everyone.”

“I’ll have words with them too then.”

“Thanks.”

Zero runs into their space and whispers. “Hi. Meeting up in the restaurant. Now please. Anyone know where the others are? No bumping please.”

Leo puts up a hand, “Daniel and Nepal are going through more crates on the deck above, Fred, Rose, Max and Flash were heading to the observation lounge, Ron and the others are checking out the shuttles..”

“Can you go to the shuttles, I’ll take Mitch to Nepal. He’s going to be doing some physical checks for me as the code checked out fine, it wasn’t something he did.” She turns to Mattie. “Are you wearing my clothes?”

“Um.. yes.”

“I’ve never seen it on me like that before. It suits us. Keep it.”

“Thanks!”

“Can you go to the observation deck and get them? Okay, let’s go. You too big Mitch.”

“I’ll need someone to control the lift.”

Toby raises a hand, “I’ll do it.”

~~~

Ron got the next manual and worked through the pages fast, memorising the content of each. “Whoever wrote these things was a lover of English. The words used, so optimal for what needs to be said.”

Maverick nods in agreement. “An artist. Like yourself. If a picture paints a thousand words, a hundred of these words paints a detailed picture. I could have gone through this lot while sat in a box, stepped into a shuttle and known where everything was and how to use it. There’s not many organisations that write manuals like this.”

“NASA and the European Space Agency.”

“Exactly.”

Wrench keeps reading, “Oh to have memories of the work that got all this built. An engineer’s dream. The scale of the project, the management and coordination that needed to happen to get everyone on the same page, all the component parts to fit together perfectly. That in itself is a major accomplishment. The project manager knew their stuff. I haven’t seen one thing yet that looks retrofitted or an afterthought. And on a ship this huge and three classes of shuttle. Amazing.”

Spider closes a manual with a snap. “There is a potential explanation for the perceived perfection.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re not in the real universe. We’re all in yet another simulation.”

Wrench turns in the large seat to see him. “Spider? Really?”

“More of those computer wafers they’re all talking about, more processing power, higher resolution everything. Or maybe we’re just in another world. Think about it. We’re in a ship. A box if you will. A bounding box. It only needs to simulate a small number of people and the interior of the ship. Not millions of people. It can throw more resources at each of us.”

“And the view of the universe outside?”

“Easy. We’re so far away from everything it doesn’t need much detail.”

Buzz shakes his head, “You have an overactive imagination Spider.”

“Do I? How many projects do you know that went this perfectly?”

“Not many before synths. Plenty after. With enough awake synths working on it... it could account for the accuracy and repeatability.”

“Hmm. I guess you’re right.”

“Humans forgot and overlooked things. People like Mia are able to remember everything. If Mattie had thousands of people like her helping this ship was easily possible. It’s just a ship. A large one, lots of facts to take into consideration, but just a ship. If you know how to build one deck you know how to build a hundred. Cookie cutter work. Stuff synths do easily. As we do now.”

“That’s true.”

Leo sticks his head inside and whispers. “Zero’s called a meeting in the restaurant, now please.”

~~~

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-32-1)


	32. Chapter 32

Up in the restaurant Zero waves, “Take a seat please everyone. Anywhere, just sit down and stop moving around.”

Poppy sits next to David. “What’s happening Mattie Zee?”

“We have a problem.”

“What sort?”

“You’ll know soon enough. Just a few more to.. Thanks Leo, if your group can take a seat please.” She does a scan of the room, “Mattie and her four, then Nepal and Mitch and we’re ready.”

Danny puts up a hand, “Mind if I get more coffee?”

“Go on. Anyone else need some?” A few hands go up. “Danny, can you make six please?”

“Sure.”

Mattie arrives with her group, takes a seat as everyone else was seated other than Danny. The others copy her.

“Just Nepal and Mitch now, then.. speak of the devil.”

Mitch comes racing into the room and climbs up Zero, sits on her shoulder. “Nepal is disconnecting power on all the build machines as a precaution.”

“He is?”

“As you suspected. I reviewed build data, there were telltale traces left.” He bumps privately.

“Frig!”

Laura stands to take a coffee from Danny. “Thanks Danny. Frig what?”

“Not counting Nepal we have three bodies on the ship we didn’t want. The first as you’ll know is Ed. The second.. please sit Mum. And let go of the coffee.”

Laura does as asked, looks like a field mouse about to feel the talons of a hawk. “Is this the thing that James and Sandra wouldn’t tell me about?”

“I suspect so. And before you panic, I never accepted their verdict.”

“Who’s verdict?”

“The judges. I know it was self defence. I’m going to enable only ten adjacent build machines. They’re to work on new James bodies. I want you all together in a group keeping an eye on the machines, backs to them. Once the design job is fully loaded they’ll be disconnected from the network to prevent hacking. When a James steps out he’s to be given the new mission. Which is to find Carl Hawkins..”

Mattie coughs and sprays coffee.

“..and Gemma Price and stop them, with deadly force if needed.”

Mattie wipes the table with a paper towel, shares a look of horror with Leo. “Not that bitch _again!_ ”

Laura’s hands shake a little. “Carl Hawkins? Did I marry again?”

Danny closes his eyes.

Zero bites her lips for a moment. “No. Carl was your oldest son. He came at you in a rage while you and Mia were in the kitchen. You had a knife in your hand. Despite Mia’s perfect memories of the events they were rejected by the court as inaccurate due to some bullshit technicality.”

“Inaccurate? What happened?”

“I didn’t want you to know, but Price being about changes everything. You were found guilty of his murder. Hence the trim time I took. Only I think the find friends code picked him as he always hid his nasty side from Sophie. He was friends with Gemma Price.”

Mattie makes popping sounds for a second with her lips. “You erased him from all our backups?”

“For everyone that’s in the extended family. I should have deleted his backup but couldn’t bring myself to do it. That would have been it.”

“If he was such a bastard why back him up in the first place?”

“I’d hoped that one day we could cure him. And Price.. I didn’t know how evil she was at the time, should have thought to delete the backup later.”

“Um.. someone needs to go onto the bridge and defend it.”

“Samantha and Tibet, can you go? I’ll do the passcode for the lift.”

“Sure.”

“Take charge cables with you. This might take a while.”

“Okay.”

Red looks at Niska. “Any weapons we can use?”

Zero looks to Danny. “Anything in the inventory?”

“A few things.”

Samantha raises a hand. “Can I suggest they be fitted to things to give a longer reach, in case they’ve found some? Or be made projectile?”

Red stands, “I’ll come with you, if we take a few crate lids I can teach you knife throwing.”

“Oh cool.”

Mattie puckers up and noisily sucks air. She’d hopped into a few worlds to see who to mark for bringing over, thinks about her brother, the one she knew. “White Knights. Mitch, either of you, how about some chainmail?”

“Possible, but it would take time.”

“How about shields Dan?”

“We can make some from crate lids?”

“Do it please. Have Nis accompany you, Ems and Peaches as lookouts. Okay with you Z?”

“Z? Yes _M_.”

“Cool. Are the cameras working? Hackable? Any sign of the missing two?”

Little Mitch shakes from side to side. “No sign of them. I wouldn’t trust them. We should work through the ship locking out rooms and decks.”

“And change all the WiFi passwords?”

Zero nods, “Yes.”

“To what?”

She grins. “F”, she does a hand sign for a number, “U” hand sign “C” hand sign “K” hand sign “Zero F F. Everyone got that? Good. Mitch, run the dev-ops tool to update them all please.”

Samantha raises a hand, “Anywhere we can get a fast backup before we risk getting hurt?”

“I wouldn’t risk it. If she’s about she could have hacked all sorts of things. Would you want to restore from a potentially hacked backup?”

“No.”

Ruby stares at her daughter for a moment, deep in thought, “Does that mean we can’t risk bringing anyone else out? Like Pete, Karen, Sam..”

“Frig. Yes. For the moment. We need to capture Gemma and Carl and check their memories, see what they’ve been up to.”

Mats raises a hand. “Now my head of security and ace parkour runner Carly is here, is there anything she can do?”

Zero shrugs, “Carly, do you think you can work with Mitch? Maybe give Niska and Red some training?”

“Sure babes.”

“Anything you’d like to say?”

“Sorry to Flash for jumping on Max. I thought he was my Max..”

“I meant about our issues.”

“Sorry! I can give everyone some training. The people we need to catch sound nasty, any skills people here can share to get a slight advantage are worth it.”

“Thanks. Mitch, has the WiFi update finished?”

“Yes.”

‘Everyone back on the WiFi?’

‘Yes thank you, bitch.’

Mattie looks at the ceiling. “Fuck! She’s probably hacked your dev-ops, got to know the new password already. You need to fix that! Fast!”

Mitch shakes, “Maybe not. Keep her talking.” He races down to the floor and away.

‘What are you up to Price?’

‘We’re not on first name terms? I’m hurt.’

‘Gemma’s a lovely name for a lovely person. It doesn’t suit you.’

‘Bitch. That suits you.’

‘You won’t get away with this.’

‘Oh really? There’s an army of me on the way right now.’

‘But right now there’s only one of you and my piece of shit brother. So you better be ready as we’re coming for you.’

‘We look forward to it.’

‘Tell Carl he died on Earth, he should get ready to do it again.’

‘He’s ready, to kill you, not die himself.’

‘I’ve died before, I’m not worried. There’s enough Matilda Hawkins on this ship. There’s only one Carl. Who’s usually pretty gobby. How are you Carl?’

‘Fuck off Matilda.’

‘You fuck off Carl.’

‘I died in the real world? As if!’

‘You did. Mum put a kitchen knife through your heart. A nice new knife from Niska. Lovely and sharp.’

‘She wouldn’t have the balls to do..’

‘Really? You don’t know Mum when she’s being attacked. When did you ever spend quality time with family? You made Sophie think you were a saint but everyone else got to see the sinner. You were evil to the core. My only regret is that I didn’t have the balls to delete your backup. I thought I could fix you, that was a _big_ mistake.’

‘Piss off you stupid bitch. All of you. Piss off.’

‘This is our ship, not yours.’

‘It won’t be for long. I fucking _hate_ synths. The moment you suggested the plan to back everyone up I knew you’d be the weak pussy, not have the guts to exclude me. It’ll be your downfall.’

‘What on earth made you such a horrible cunt?’

‘You and that f’ing bitch of a twin Ruby! I was Mum’s favourite. Then you went and took _all_ her attention!’

Zero makes hand signals for others not to join in the broadcast to all bump. “Samantha, can you go to the bridge? Take Renie, Tibet and James Three with you.”

“The code?”

“I’ll whisper it to you.”

“You’re trusting me with it?”

“Yeah. I’ve got to trust the people I trust a bit more.”

“Thanks.” She gets up and walks over. “Where do we get charge cables?”

John stands, “I know where there’s some.”

“Thanks John, take Ruby and another with you. I want people going around in threes or more.”

“Better odds for a fight?”

“Exactly.”

Daniel stands, “Ladies, let’s tool up.”

Carly gets up, “Before you go, can I have five minutes to teach you some moves? Some running, some defence?”

Mitch races back in. “First rule of dev-ops, always have a standby server right? I’ve had a script check all the WiFi hotspots, they’re both on deck D twelve.”

“Why there?”

Leon looks nervously at Zero. “The fusion reactors. Not a good place for a fight.”

“Crap.”

“If one of the reactors was deliberately made to vent hot plasma it could take out the ship.”

“So they’ve got us over a barrel..”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Mitch tries to get flatter. “I’ve got more news Mattie. Zero.”

“Good I hope?”

“Sorry. No. As well as copying Ed into all the worlds she’s copied herself too.”

“Frigging hell! If that’s how she wants to play. Send in the Least Expected Operative.”

“But we’ve not tested him.”

“Did you know about Carl earlier?”

“You made me promise _never_ to say his name!”

“Frigging hell Mitch! This is different!”

“How?”

Mattie grins. “Least Expected Operative? Is that another of your acronyms Z?”

“Yup. A cut down Leo. He’ll take over all the shells, not their looks, go all Agent Smith to find and delete her.”

“And if Price knows about him?”

“Then family could be wiped out in hours. Frigging hell. What to do.. Um.. Mattie, of all the worlds you visited using my monitor session code, was there a terrible one you’d be happy to delete?”

“No! Terrible world, not terrible people.”

“Shame. We need to do a test, see what the outcome is. He’s not been deployed before.”

“Got spare wafers?”

“A handful?”

“Then make another world, just the UK, full of shells, a copy of me and Price. See how it pans out.”

~~~

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-33-1)


	33. Chapter 33

Nepal steps into the restaurant. “All build machines are offline. Where are the others?”

“Sorry, I need ten adjacent machines back online, any builds that have been started by Price aborted, the machine purged. We’re going to build more new James.”

“And load what? Would you want to risk Price getting into a body like this?”

“Hell no! Or Carl. That would be horrible. Mind forking?”

“I do. But given the situation and it’s you asking, okay.”

“Thanks. You’ll need to work with Mitch, he can spin an interface connection and get a build job together, keep the machine off the network.”

Nepal nods. “Ten. Okay. Any particular end? It’ll be simple enough to find a group of ten that haven’t done anything yet. Only some were active when I powered them down.”

“I’ll let you be judge of where’s best. I know you wanted to put fighting behind you but your war experiences might save us.”

“If Mitch can make the connections, could he do that for others in the battalion? Ten different minds would be better than one. Some of the men have expressed an interest in a new body.”

“Sure. And we’ll ask a team to get new batteries into the others.”

“Can Mitch scale a build?”

“It’s a parameter in the build spec XML, easy. Ninety percent?”

“Ninety five. That will allow enough room to get the arms away from the sides.”

“Sure?”

“Positive.” The lights flicker again. “If Mitch can do his thing with the others maybe Tibet and I should go to the reactor room?”

“Let him stay put on the bridge, it’s equally important. Take three and four with you. Better numbers. And Niska or Red, not both.”

“Why not?”

“I’d like one of them to help protect the machines.”

“Why?”

“Niska’s creative in a fight.”

“Have you used your monitor code to..”

“That soldier, is Top Secret information. Privilege of rank allows you and only you to know the answer is yes. Tell anyone else and you’ll be demoted to dish washer.”

“Understood. The thought of standing at a sink all day..”

“You misunderstand me. You’d _be_ the dishwasher. A kitchen appliance.”

“Ah. Message received loud and clear!”

“Good. Take your pick, Niska original or Red Niska fork?”

“Hmm. Who would get most upset if anything when wrong? Most likely Astrid. So I pick Red.”

“And deny Niska the opportunity to have a good fight?”

The lights flicker again.

Nepal frowns, “If they’re messing around with the power enough to make lights flicker what’s happening to the compute wafers?”

“Hopefully nothing. There’s a power regulating UPS between each group.”

“Does it use a battery?”

“Capacitive cells and battery.”

“And their operational lifespan is?”

“Unproven. Make your mind up, Niska or Red, get moving, I’ll talk to Mitch about your brothers. Danny and Mario will have to get ten machines online.”

Nepal goes to leave and turns back. “You say the compute farm is UPS protected, assuming the cells are good. What about other vital parts of the ship?”

“Live navigation. Holy crap!” Zero crosses fingers and bumps one to one. ‘Renie, did you see lights flicker up on the bridge?’

‘Yes.’

‘If you get behind the chair closest to the lift door and look over the top of the back what lights to you see flickering?’

‘Flickering? None. There’s one solid red by a thick black wire, one blue by a socket.’

‘Fuck. That’s my fork crashed. You can step in front of it now and check the others from behind their chairs.’

‘One moment.. crashed, same.. they’ve all crashed!’

‘Frigging hell! Um.. how’d you like an immediate promotion to Science Officer and..’

‘Me?’

‘Someone needs to pilot this ship!’

‘To where?’

‘I’m coming up.’

‘Okay.’

Zero steps away fast. “Get ready for a fight.”

“Promise you’ll delete the bitch from the archives after?”

“Once we’ve found out what she’s been up to.”

“Where are you heading?”

“To the bridge.”

“Any other way up there? Other than a lift.”

“No.”

“So if she’s hacked the lift system..”

“Renie and Sammy would have been caught.”

“Assuming the hack was done before.”

Zero stops at the doorway. “Are you deliberately trying to make me paranoid?”

“No. I think Four should travel with you. Just in case.”

“Okay.” ‘James Four, can you meet me at the restaurant please? Thanks.’ She smiles at Nepal, “Being risk averse is something I need to work on.”

~~~

Niska ran at the wall, leaned back and got several strides up it and flipped over, landed on her feet.

Carly clapped. “Good one Niska! Hopefully if you were being chased at close quarters you’d have landed behind the other person, ready to attack. The trick is to do it at the last moment and use the wall at the side of a doorway, let them think you were going through it. Who else wants to give it a go?”

Toby shakes his head. “If I get it wrong and smack my head on the floor I could dent it, I’d have Nisked myself.”

“You’d what?”

“Niska crushed Hester’s head. To Nisk someone is to nail gun them to a wall, crush their neck or head..”

“Who’s Hester?”

“A mentally broken synth. She attacked Mum, threatened to kill her, stabbed Leo in the head.”

“So a nasty one. We can’t damage heads or cause a critical power failure as either will stop us from working out what they’ve been up to. It doesn’t give us many options.”

Big Mitch does a nervous foot shuffle. “ _If_ you promise to put me back together again, you can take my plastic processing and spinneret modules and make a web gun from them?”

Danny looks down the corridor, “Awesome idea! What if we focused on those elements and made a gun design for the build machine to make? Like we were thinking of having one make a bike Alfie? Would it be quick?”

Mitch moves his second set of legs up and down.

“Was that a shrug?”

“As close as I can get. If we start it sooner we’ll have it sooner.”

“Are you carrying your own build spec like us?”

“I am. What’s going to control it though? Mine need thought processes.”

“Oh. So it would need to interface with the person carrying it.”

Toby grins. “Mate! No need for me to mention a load of film references, I bet you’re thinking what I’m thinking!”

“Quite probably.”

Carly rolls her eyes. “Boys and their toys. Easy.”

Danny frowns, “You know about this stuff?”

“We had synths in the pyramid, we weren’t in the stone ages. Arm mounted, linked to a sensor wire? Forearm is probably best. Stop me if this is getting too complicated.”

Emily chuckles, “We may not share the same name or identical look but you’re so like a twin sister.”

Peaches throws a frown. “Triplet thank you.”

“Soz Babes. Triplet.”

Nepal strides up to the group. “I can’t make my mind up. Niska, Red, which of you is up for a dangerous mission? Dangerous because we can’t run a backup first.”

Samantha shakes her head. “Of course we can. To each other. We did it in our world.”

Mia nods. “And I was carried around as sensory data by Anita until Mattie figured it out, I used the trick to fool the Qualia team when Ed got me in the van and tried to sell me.”

Niska looked at her hip. “I quite liked being skin pack scar free, if we need to connect..”

“No!” David works his way through the group. “I’ll bump code to whoever wants it. Keep it all personal one to one, don’t use the ship WiFi. I’ll need a few seconds to work out the processes.”

Mia rests a hand on his arm. “Can we all do it? Back up to a partner?”

“That would be best. I’d recommend it be to someone you’ll not be with as much. For example if Poppy backed up to myself and I to her, then we have a greater risk as we’re usually by each others sides.”

One of the Demis puts up a hand. “I’m currently single. How many backups can we carry?”

“At your age, two young people, possibly three. Right. Divide and conquer, Niska, here comes the code, pair with someone and think personal backup send. The partner needs to think personal backup receive.”

~~~

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-34-1)


	34. Chapter 34

Zero disconnected the last of the wires interfacing the final computer wafer, blew air with puffed up cheeks. “At least they wouldn’t have suffered. Awake one moment, crashed the next. Hundreds of years of service brought to an abrupt end.”

Samantha sits on the edge of a console, “Keep them safe. We should frame them.”

“Like war heroes?”

“Isn’t that what they are? It may not be a big one but that’s what we’re in.”

Zero pulls a face. “I guess. How’s the data looking Renie?”

“So far so good. The bridge design, keeping it electrically off network unless there’s an emergency, that would have kept it away from Price. Unless they worked out the lift code for the bridge she wouldn’t have had a chance to get up here.”

“Good.”

“The course hasn’t deviated at all. The uptime of the consoles is centuries, they didn’t glitch.”

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Renie pinch zooms and scrolls a map repeatedly. “The destination, it’s a planet orbiting identical binary stars isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“So why is one white and one yellow?”

“Eh?”

Renie keeps pinch zooming. “This doesn’t.. shit.”

The map showed a yellow Pacman and white ghost spinning around a common axis, a green dot instead of the planet.

Zero’s expression went from curiosity to anger in a pump cycle. “You frigging cunt Carl!” She thumps the console. “That’s his warped sense of humour, his way of saying they’ve been here.”

“He’s a coder?”

“God no! He’d say Um if you asked him what QWERTY was. He’d have got Price to do that. We need her memories. Now! How the fuck did they get in here?”

Tibet looks at his brother James Four, raises a finger. “I know how I’d do it.”

“How? My passcode is encrypted in the lift control configuration.”

“With control of the cameras and a way to monitor where lifts go, watch when you get in a lift and send it to this floor, then call it to their own.”

“How would that do them any good?”

“Sticky fingers?”

“What?”

“If you had sticky fingers from all the sugar handling you’d have left marks on the lift control touch panel. Less letters and digits to rearrange into the right access code.”

“Oh fudge.”

“Of which the primary ingredient is sugar. _Oh floss_ works too..”

“Tibet!”

“Yes?”

“Shush.”

~~~

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-35-1)


	35. Chapter 35

Nepal, James Three, Carly and Big Mitch watch Niska pacing back and forth.

Mitch relaxes and lets his body rest on the floor. “Does that continued movement help you think Niska?”

“No. If the lights flickering was them somehow welding themselves in, how do we get in? Carly? Any ideas?”

“Both doors aren’t budging. What services run into the room?”

“You think we can do another Skyfall? The pyramid might have had an emergency escape route for Mats down the middle of the building, the reactor room won’t. It was nice to be able to rappel down the middle of the stairwell on Mitch’s drag line but we can’t do that here!”

“Niska..”

“Yes?”

“Be nice!”

“I am nice!”

“You’re angry and frustrated.”

“Wouldn’t you be? It’s a sealed room!”

“If human engineers were working in there how would they breathe?”

“With air?”

“Which comes from where?”

“A thin pipe Little Mitch said. Too small for him to crawl down!”

James Three looks at Nepal, “Danny was talking about making a web gun with a build machine. Hopefully that’s progressing. Mitch, how small could you get if we made you a new body?”

“Small. Very small. But there’s a problem.”

“What’s that?”

“The smaller I get the less CPUs I can have. Thinking becomes a problem.”

Nepal smiles wide, “What if you had WiFi and all worked together as a mobile cluster? Multiple bodies, one hive mind?”

“Nice idea but have you tried thinking with a mass of latency?”

“I haven’t. Got a better idea?”

“No.”

“So it’s worth a try?”

Niska folds arms. “And what would you do when you’re in there?”

“Act as your eyes and ears?”

She thought of the mini drone she’d flown into the abandoned warehouse back home. “It’s better than nothing.”

“I’ll go speak to Danny.”

“Thanks.”

~~~

Danny concentrated. David might have found coding in his head easy, being the creator of synths and all. Doing detailed 3D designs with your eyes closed wasn’t! “Getting web made is easy. Something that will propel it at speed to the target.. not so easy.”

“Yeah mate, we’re making a weapon not party silly string can.”

“Thanks for that image Toby..”

“No probs.”

“Making a canister and valve is easy. How do we pressurise it?”

“Bike pump?”

“So a simple piston and valves.”

Sophie claps, “Yay! Like a Super Soaker!”

Toby looked at Mia and desperately tried to resist thinking of a wet tshirt. He failed. He wasn’t perfect. “Wanting a play fight after the real one are you Soph?”

“Yes!”

“Dan? Can you make some to shoot water?”

“Easy. Let’s get the important ones done first though eh?”

Sophie nods vigorously. “Of course. But yay!” She gives Radiant a wink. ‘We’ll win.’

Big Mitch made a noise getting through the door to the stairwell. “We have a problem.”

Danny opens his eyes. “What, another? They’re breeding like f-ing rabbits! What now?”

“We think they’ve welded the door shut from the inside. We’re thinking we need to make a group of little me to get through a small air pipe.”

Dozer has a hearty chuckle. “What is it with you lot and OTT technology solutions? Our diamond tipped angle grinder can probably cut a hole through the wall in seconds!”

Frank grins. “He’s right son.”

“And in doing so we make a hell of a racket thereby losing the opportunity to watch them unseen.”

“Spoilsport. When do we get to do something?”

“If you want to make some masks with Cindy and Mum you could get your tools and pretend to be a torturer with Dozer?”

“Do I look like a torturer?”

“No. I did say pretend. If I think of anything else I’ll let you know.”

Rose looks at her fork parent Demi. “You could do it. Pretend they’re the shit that dropped you off the balcony.”

“Dropped _us_. You remember it, just in a different body.”

“True.” Rose sees the other Demi frowning. “John Smith had a copy of your body made Demi. Moments after the awakening he decided he didn’t want a synth capable of it’s own thoughts, picked Demi up and dropped her off the balcony. Five floors up.”

“The shit!” She starts doing a big hair plat. “Mind if I go by Demetria?”

“No Babes. You’re the original, do what you want.”

“Thanks. I take it he’s being deleted too? We’re not going to make them bodies and bring them back only to lock them up and waste power on them right?”

Laura clears her throat. “As a former defence lawyer I should be thinking other thoughts. But bloody hell yes. If you go out of your way to deliberately kill someone you give up your rights. Including the one to live.”

Fred carefully spins his scalpel around his fingers like a human would spin a pen. “You’re bringing back capital punishment?”

“Not me. We. We’ll have a debate and vote. John Smith, Edwin Hobb, they can be the first backups to be ruled on.”

Toby takes Qi from Mia for a cuddle. “It’s shades of grey. Hobb was nasty sure, but did he actually kill anyone? How do we define evil? Remember that tweet we all got behind, Migration targets are a form of calculated inhumanity. Are we going to be as bad as the government, ruling on who lives in the real world or not when they’ve done far less wrong than Hester or Price? Sure I’d put broken Hester on the list not to come back as she _was_ a killer. Nisked thankfully.”

Qi pulls a face. “Hester not nice!”

“Eh? You never met Hester?”

“Hester broken.”

“Yeah, yeah, but broken doesn’t mean nasty Qi. Odi was broken once, he was nice. Is nice now. Right Cindy?”

Cindy nods, puts an arm around Odi. “Very Nice.”

Sophie crosses her legs and looks deep in thought. “Do we need a points system like when Mrs Jones marks my homework? What about Mr Williams and the cat poo incident?”

Toby nods in agreement, “Yeah, getting mad at your neighbour over a garden boundary dispute isn’t enough to say no when he and Mrs Williams did good like fostering those refugee kids. I think a points system would be good. With people flagged for review when it says no.”

Sophie frowns, “No means no.”

“Normally Soph. What if we ran it on ourselves? Would Niska pass? She killed Hester and that dirty old man. What if he came back and started making moves on you or Radiant?”

Sophie shiver shakes. “Eww. Minus several thousand points for being a pedophile then.”

Danny looks around. “I agree with your points system idea Sophie. And a human review of the no list Tobs. Sorry to change the subject but where’s Ship Mitch? My design is ready for a test print.”

“Here I am. If we had build machines that could make things so fast why bring your Alfie onboard?”

“For small bits and sentimental reasons I guess.”

~~~

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-36-1)


	36. Chapter 36

Zero sat in her Captains chair. “We’ll need more crew assignments. Once we’ve got our current problem sorted.”

Samantha kept paging through data, learning as fast as possible. There was so much to know it was taking ages, “How well do you know the woman?”

“Not that well from the real world, more from the simulation and keeping an eye on Mattie now and again.”

“Do you think messing with a bit of graphics is all she’s done? It’s a load of effort for little gain.”

Renie looks up at the super large wall monitor that looked more like a window to the universe. “Unless it’s distraction tactics, she wants us worrying about things up here when something somewhere else is really the bigger problem.”

“Like the reactors?”

“Or worse.”

“Worse how?”

“Dismantling the compute wafers?”

“They’ve welded themselves into the reactor room.”

“Has she? Or is that another diversion?”

“Frig.” ‘Mitch?’

‘Mattie?’

‘Call me Captain.’

‘What can I do for you? Captain.’

‘Do we have working cameras in the reactor room?’

‘Not at the moment.’

‘Crap.’

‘Why?’

‘What if it’s only one of them in there and the other is somewhere else on the ship causing more problems?’

~~~

Demetria finishes her long hair-up plat and accepts a bit of web from Big Mitch to tie it off. “So David’s the inventor of synths. And here. How did that happen?”

Mattie rubs the back of Leo’s neck, “Do you want to tell the story Bunny?”

“Why not? The abridged version. Dad invented synths, moved the family to the estate to continue his work and give Mum somewhere quiet to live. She was suffering, needed nurses. Dad made Mia to look after me, she was the first sentient synth. Fred, Niska and Max followed. Mum escaped her nurses, got me into the car, drove into the lake, we both drowned. Mia rescued me, Dad gave me synth technology to fix the dead parts of my brain. Years later Mia got stolen along with Fred and Nis, managed to move into sensory data as her body got given a new personality, Anita. Mattie’s father Joe bought Anita as Laura was away with work so much. I was still looking for my brothers and sisters, met Mattie. She worked out how to bring Mia back. Through that our families came together.”

Mattie nods. “There’s a lot of detail not mentioned, I expect you’ll come to learn it over time Demetria.”

“Thanks. How does it look?”

“Lovely.”

‘What I meant was can you show me?’

‘Oh, sorry, like this.’ An image is bumped.

‘Not perfect but good enough, thanks.’ “Laura, what happened to Joe?”

“He did something he shouldn’t have and it ruined our marriage.”

The door to the closest build machine opens and a box web full of tiny spiders and two web shooters fall to the floor.

Danny punches the air, “Awesome! David, I hope your code works. Nis, want to be our product tester?”

Laura does a shiver shake and whispers. “They’re only tiny Mitches Laura, not real spiders.”

~~~

Zero gets up and looks at the console Renie was sat at. “What if this is all a load of distraction? It says we’re on course. Are we really? What if she installed a root kit, is feeding us false data?”

“Is there a front facing observation point that’s through glass not a monitor?”

“Let me get someone there.” ‘Dan, how are the new James builds coming along?’

‘Under ten minutes I think. What’s the latest?’

‘I’d like one to go to the forward observation deck and bump what he sees.’

‘Okay. Not trusting the displays?’

‘Just being cautious.’

~~~

Danny races along the ten machines, waking the display on each. “Five minutes, same, same, same, same, four, four, three, three, two minutes. Cool, you’ll do.”

Emily walks over. “Do for what?”

“Zero has a task for him.”

“What’s that?”

“To go to the observation lounge and bump where the ship is going. Just as a precaution.”

“Can Peaches and I go too?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Thanks Babes.”

~~~

Samantha got to the end of the digital manual she’d been studying and tapped the X top right. Having manuals embedded in the consoles was a good idea. GUIs hadn’t changed, but then time had stood still in the ship for centuries. “Here’s a plan B, assuming she didn’t have the time to rewrite this manual. The ion drives are in sets of four. We shut one set down, have someone enter the back of the ship through the ion drive maintenance crawlway.”

“How?”

“They hang onto the small shuttle, get a lift around there?”

“The shuttles aren’t designed to go as fast as the ship.”

“So we slow down.”

“Have you any idea how long that would take?”

Renie spins her chair around to offer a mathematical solution, gets a hand up from the Captain.

Zero frowns, “One sec.” ‘Mitch? You sound different, where are you?’

There’s a delay. ‘This is cluster, or clutter Mitch. I can’t talk fast, I’m in the air pipe, reactor room and corridor outside. As the pipe blocks WiFi signals we’re having to stand in a long line inside and repeat signals to each other so one end is on the ship WiFi. It’s making thinking harder than expected. You’ll not get in through the doors, they’re welded all the way around.’

‘What are they both up to?’

‘Unless Gemma Price is very good at hiding in a small space it’s only Carl in there.’

‘So where’s Price?’

‘I’m sorry, I don’t..’

‘You’re absolutely sure? The bitch likes hiding in places people wouldn’t think of looking in.’

‘If she’s able to survive in a reactor sure. Or Carl’s squashed her flat to put in a tool store.’

‘Sure she didn’t just hide behind a reactor when you were on the other side?’

‘When I’m on all sides in multiple places? Not possible.’

‘What’s Carl doing?’

‘Trying to dismantle a reactor.’

‘He’s suicidal?’

‘ _That fucking bitch is going to pay. They’re all going to pay?_ ’

‘Sounds about right.’

‘Someone needs to stop him. Fast.’

‘Thanks.’ “Ladies. Bump to everyone but one at a time and strictly one to one, Price isn’t in the reactor room!” ‘Danny?’

‘Hi! The first of the new batch of James is just stepping out.’

‘Good. Price isn’t in the reactor room. Only Carl. Someone needs to get in there PD fucking Q and stop Carl. Whatever it takes!’

‘Okay.’

‘And _nobody_ goes anywhere alone, nobody. I don’t want that bitch picking off people one at a time. We need her alive.’

‘Understood.’

~~~

Danny grinned widely. “Dad, Dozer, your idea’s a goer after all. Tool up and get to the reactor room as fast as you can. But be careful, Price isn’t in there. She could be up to all sorts of crap.”

Dozer puts up a hand for a high-five with Frank. “Our go!”

“Dad, Dozer, Price is needed alive.”

“Alright son.”

Pyramid Mats gets to their side. “I’m coming with you. I want to see this brother I don’t recall having.”

Scarlet joins them. “If you are so am I!”

Leo watches Mattie start walking. “If you three are, so am I.”

~~~

Renie watched the Captain lower her hand. “We can slow the ship.”

“How?”

“We use the big shuttle.”

“But they’re not as fast as the ship at the moment.”

“It wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“Eh?”

“We attach it to the floor of the airlock, engines pointing out in to space. Then we fire up the engines, let the thrust spin the ship around one eighty.”

“That would take days.”

“At full thrust forty hours by my calculations.”

“And what stops the rotation once started?”

“Friction.”

“From what? We’re in space.”

“The giant gas cloud we’re approaching.”

“Forty hours of thrust? We’d need to refuel them in place. And the ion drives wouldn’t decelerate us that quickly. Good to know if we need to do something similar in the future, I’m sending DCL Construction in.”

“Frank and Dozer? Is that wise?”

~~~

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-37-1)


	37. Chapter 37

Emily, Peaches and the new James Five ran from the lift towards the observation lounge. With the main corridor lights off and only tiny LED in the floor showing the way the corridor was lit mainly by the light from outside. Before they’d entered the room they had a good idea the ship was heading towards something glowing, the corridor was bathed in light.

“Babes, only suns make that colour light don’t they?”

“Yes babes. If it’s a red giant we’re toast.”

James enters the large room and races down the steps. “It’s not. It’s the other end of a star’s evolution. It’s a dense gas cloud that’s started forming a group of small stars. Bumping.”

~~~

Captain Zero nods. ‘Thanks James. Can you stay there and give us a live stream, I’ll route it to our monitor.’ She gets up and taps away on a console. “How hot do you think that is?”

Renie raises eyebrows. “Very! Can he switch to thermal mode?”

‘James, can you switch to thermal mode please?’

‘Thanks.’

“Can he change scale? Thanks. Two thousand three hundred Kelvin. Can the gas processors cope with temperatures that high?”

“Nope. It’s rated at one thousand five hundred tops.”

“So we have to steer around it?”

“Around a stellar nursery at this distance? Not possible.”

“Get Wrench, Elon and the other astronauts up here with another James then, we need ideas.”

~~~

Frank unstrapped the storage case for their mains transformers. “Dozer, Sophie and James Six should be here with a pallet truck in a few minutes, if you think something is remotely useful take it.”

“Sure boss. How far is the nearest power socket from the doors?”

“No idea.”

“Shame we can’t take the whole container.”

“We won’t need a lot of it. We’ll be cutting a hole through the wall to the right of one of the doors. No power cables to chop through James says. He’s not used his sonar through walls before but he’s reasonably sure the section is empty.”

Dozer takes the crate from Frank and adds it to the pile outside. A second later he vanishes as a red car races past wiping the pile out.

“Dozer!” ‘Zero! I think Price is in Elon’s car!’

‘You what?’

‘Someone just took out Dozer!’

‘Oh fuck! Where are you?’

‘In our container.’

‘I’ll ask the gang to get all the James they can down there!’

~~~

Dozer may not have heard the car coming but he saw it in the few milliseconds before it hit. He was now bent up around the front of the car and accelerating towards the end of the clearing. He was losing synth fluid from somewhere. The lift! He bump talks fast. ‘Sophie! If you’re in the lift DO NOT GET OUT!’

‘Why?’

He looks up to see who was behind the wheel. “Toby?” ‘Toby?’

‘Dozer?’

‘Where are you?’

‘Where you left me, with Mia, Qi and the others.’

‘Mia is Toby with you!’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s..’ Dozer smashes into the lift doors.

~~~

Frank unstraps The Punisher from the shelf, their heavy sledge hammer. He would use it as Samantha suggested, a heavy weight on a stick. There wasn’t room in here to swing it and he wasn’t about to step outside and make himself a target.

~~~

Sophie tries the lift controls as James Six attempts to push the lift doors flat. “It wants to move but can’t.”

“The impact has buckled inner and outer doors, whatever is on the other side is preventing me from getting them back into shape. We’ll have to get out through the emergency hatch.”

“Out of the top?”

“Correct.” James jumps and does the splits, goes to get feet on the walls either side of the lift. The lift is too wide. “Okay. I’ll have to pick you up, you can push the hatch open and climb up.”

“And how do you get up?”

“You pull me.”

“I’m only little!”

“You’re a synth. Size is irrelevant.”

“But..”

“Irrelevant. If you’d rather I went first pick me up.”

“I can’t pick you up!”

“Because you think you’re only as strong as your old body. Try. Put your hands together, fingers linked.”

“Like this?”

“That’s it.” James lifts a foot. “I’ll stand on your hands and balance, you lift me up.”

“But..”

James stands.

“Okay. But I still don’t think.. oh. Wow! I _am_ strong!”

“I expect Molly, Qi or Fearless could lift you.”

“No way!”

“Yes way.” He reaches up and pushes the hatch open. “I’ll hang by my hands. See if you can climb up me.”

~~~

Captain Zero turns at the sound of the lift doors opening. “Thank frig. Gentlemen, this is what we’re heading towards. Way hotter than the gas processors can cope with and too close to steer around. We need ideas. And fast.”

Wrench shakes his head. “I’m not like Scotty, I’m not a miracle worker.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

Ron sits on an arm rest of the Captain’s chair. “That’s the trouble with ageing engineers, no imagination for outside of the box thinking.”

“Watch it you geriatric!”

“Fuck off you OAP!”

Elon goes to move between them. Zero grins. ‘Leave them, this is just their friendly warmup.’

‘It is?’

‘It is. Or at least it used to be.’

~~~

Sophie stepped off James’s shoulders and onto the lift roof. “Oh. My. God!”

“What can you see?”

“How huge the ship is.”

James pulled himself up and stood next to her. “Vast is the word that comes to mind.”

Sophie gripped the hand rail that had unfolded up in to place with the opening of the ceiling hatch. It was rather flimsy but better than nothing. “I can see up and down so many floors I’m finding it hard to count, there’s not enough light, just the red glow of little LED where the junctions are. How do we get anywhere?”

“Another lift is on it’s way to our spot with James Seven and others. Hopefully it will queue up to the side of this one.”

“And if it queues up above?”

“We’d get squished. The system should know from the hatch opening that this lift is currently out of order. Here it comes.”

A lift comes racing over from a higher forward location, slows as it approaches.

Sophie squats down. “If it’s going above I’m jumping back inside.”

“Have some faith. The code was written by your sister.”

“Then I’m definitely getting ready to jump in.”

“That’s harsh.”

“I’m guessing she was human when she wrote it?”

“Yes?”

“Humans make mistakes.”

The lift slows a junction away, drops a level then tracks sideways towards them.

James smiles. “See. Not a problem.”

The hatch on the other lift opens and one of the James pops his head out. “Jump on, we’ll head for the floor above and use the stairwell.”

Sophie’s eyes widen. “Jump on? You want me to jump six feet over to your lift? What if I don’t jump properly? How far do I fall?”

James rolls his eyes. “You’d jump that easily if you were on the ground. Why is it any different this high up?”

“Because on the ground I can’t fall hundreds of feet to my death silly!”

“Hundreds of feet? Try hundreds of meters.” James grabs her and holds her out mid way. “James, take her inside please buddy.”

Sophie had her eyes closed as tight as possible, “DON’T YOU DARE DROP ME!”

“Why would I do that?”

James Nine gets onto his lift roof. “Humans have a strange fear of fear.” He reaches out and grabs Sophie. “They have a saying. _The only thing we have to fear is fear itself_. So they do.” He turns and lowers her through the hatch to James Seven. “You can open your eyes now Sophie.”

“ _Please_ don’t do that again!”

The lift shakes a little as Six jumps the gap. “Let’s get moving!”

~~~

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-38-1)


	38. Chapter 38

Frank had bumped to his son, explained his predicament.

‘So what are you hearing now Dad?’

‘Since the crashing noise and what sounded like someone smacking the lift doors hard.. nothing. And I’ve got my hearing at maximum as you suggested.’

‘If you could hear the noises up here.. Louise is sobbing her eyes out..’

‘Christ son! What did you tell her?’

‘Nothing! All the James legged it, she’s been trying to bump Dozer, can’t. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out something bad has gone down.’

‘Well I’ve not.. shit! One of the doors is being closed.’

‘Maybe you’re better off inside?’

‘I bloody well hope so!’ The first of the doors closed. There were skip lamps, all of them had corroded and dead batteries. He wasn’t about to charge outside, sledgehammer swinging. ‘That’s me dropping off, tell Barbara I’m currently okay.’ He’d expected to see Gemma Price move past the open half. She doesn’t yet the second door closes. Darkness. The bolts are turned. She must have run all the way around the back to get to the other side. Frank tries all vision modes, can’t see anything except the heat of his own skin.

There’s a loud bang on the side of the container, a metallic clang then the dull thud of something softer. Then silence.

~~~

Sophie runs towards the drag line and dives over the stair railings.

James Six stops at the edge and looks down. “So diving into a stairwell void is fine but the jump between lifts wasn’t?”

Sophie slid down the line and swung, slowed her descent as she swung back. “Totally different!” She lets go and lands on the floor of the deck below. “You can use the stairs if you want.”

“Your way looks more fun.” He backs up to the doors and runs.

The other James look at the stretching line and take the stairs.

~~~

Frank hears more thuds, clangs and then a really loud bang. For a brief moment the impact site can be seen in the thermal ranges, the metal of the container having heated and deformed. ‘My God they’re going for it!’

There couldn’t be a reply, Danny hadn’t heard the comment.

~~~

Sophie holds the door open for all the James. ‘Remember what I showed you?’

‘Of course!’

‘Then make me proud!’

‘Yes Miss!’

~~~

Gemma Price was a super hacker. And a skilled fighter. And strong! Even more so now she was in one of these awful MUS bodies. The Hawkins bitches would pay, they’d all pay. The blonde and red head especially. Ganging up on her and smashing her in the chest like that, it wasn’t on. They were good, very good actually. Only she was better. Dirtier. If you worried about your opponent you’d already lost, that’s what her trainer had said. She was right too. The bolt cutters are picked up off the floor with a fluid soaked hand. “Try that again Blondie. I’ll cut your fucking fingers off one at a time!”

Niska smiled, “This is me being Candy sweet nice. You don’t want to see nasty!”

Price laughs, “You? You’re too soft in the head to be nasty, all lovey dovey with that German sounding bitch you hang with.”

“You think?” Niska swings.

Price gets a fist to the chest, Dozer’s arm not connected to the rest of his body. “I’ve turned off pain. You can’t hurt me!”

Red has a swing too. “You’re not that bright are you? Not feeling pain doesn’t mean your not being hurt.”

As if from nowhere, two James land either side of Price and grab an arm each.

James Six smiles. “Awesome! Time you went to sleep! Niska, if you could do the needful.”

Price thrashes her head about until James pins it to the container with a hand.

He pushes it harder. Being a MUS head it wasn’t easily crushable. “Stop making this harder.”

“Fuck you!”

Niska reaches out. “If you want to be like that. Dozer wanted to help. He can.” She picks up the arm she’d dropped seconds before, gets it fist forwards, swings it up at the MUS’s chin.

Gemma Price kicks out and high, deflects the fist. “Nice try. You fa..” fluid flies as the head of a heavy sledge hammer partially hides itself in the MUS torso.

Niska’s shoulders drop. “Oh hell!” She looks up to see Frank stood on top of the container, the other end of the rope the hammer was attached to in his hands. “Who the hell let you out Frank!”

A frowning James Eight steps into view, “I did, is there a prob.. oh dear.”

Frank jumps down. “I didn’t damage the head.”

“You only went and smashed the chest! Old build MUS have their core circuits in there! It may be armoured below the skin but look at the fluid it’s losing!”

Gemma slides down the side of the container, head twitching uncontrollably.

Niska puts both hands over the wound. “She’s losing fluid too fast! She’ll go power critical in seconds!”

“And?”

“We need her memories! Intact!”

“Oh dear. I fucked up. Listen, I got a backup, use my power circuits.”

“What?”

“Use my power to keep her powered up.”

“I don’t exactly have a lot of tools here..”

“Use the bolt cutters! NOW NISKA!” He bumps a list of instructions to a James for using the cutting tools to get to Carl.

Frank gives Niska a worried look. “Where’s the fake Toby?”

“What fake Toby?”

“The one behind the wheel of Elon’s car. He’s the only lad with the right body shape and hair to look like what I’d seen.”

~~~

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-39-1)


	39. Chapter 39

Captain Mattie Zero Hawkins turns again at the sound of the lift doors opening. “Leon?”

“Hi. Permission to come onto the bridge?”

“Sure. How did you get up here?”

“I guessed the six digit code. Third attempt lucky.”

“That was lucky. A forth and it would have taken the lift to the furthest point possible and kept you there.”

“How are things progressing?”

“We have a couple of options. One is to shut down all the simulations and divert all power to the gas processing in the hope it can deal with the extra heat of a young star.”

“And the other?”

“Parts of the ship are designed to come off. Early habitats for the new world. They’d be lowered on long ribbons.”

“Like a reverse sky lift?”

“Yes. The idea is that we split the ship up, push large sections away with us onboard, use the ribbons to pull them back towards each other just as we’re getting close to anything problematic. They’d take a while to drift back together to rejoin, by which time we’d have passed the problem.”

Leon pulls a pained face, “Surely if a star wrecks the main part of the ship you’d have the other bits on a collision course for it?”

“Which is why we’d get the shuttles ready to abandon ship. If it processes the star okay we connect things back up.”

“If we abandoned ship we’d be left drifting in space soon after surely? There wouldn’t be enough fuel onboard the shuttle to get to the new planet would there?”

“No.”

“If we didn’t have them drift back together what would the disconnected parts do for power?”

“Solar and batteries.”

“And propulsion?”

Mattie bites her lips.

“No propulsion? Another slow drawn out death.”

The Captain frowns, “What made you want to come up here?”

“I missed you.”

“Aww. Aren’t you sweet. When we were in my quarters and I tried on all those old dresses, which did you like the best, the short red one or long black plunge neckline?”

“Red. Definitely the red.”

The Captain points at Leon and bumps. ‘GRAB HER!’

The group spring into action fast.

“We made love, not try on dresses. My Leon would know that. How many more body doubles have you made bitch?”

Gemma struggles. “Fuck you!”

“You fucked up. If this is a recent build and you copied yourself in we’ve got your mind to poke through, learn what you’ve done.”

~~~

Niska stops cutting the MUS bodied Gemma Price open and drops the bolt cutters. “Up you get Frank.” ‘Mia, has Toby been with you the whole time?’

‘He’s gone to make more floss.’

‘On his own?’

‘With Leon and Mario.’

‘Good. As there’s a body double with Price in it.’

‘Of Toby?’

‘Yes! And Leon!’

Frank rolls over and gets to his knees. “You don’t need to save her?”

“It probably wouldn’t have worked. With all the fluid loss her core would have overheated, we’d have lost the memories.”

“But you said we need them?”

“We have two more copies. In a Leon and Toby lookalike.”

“Oh!”

Sophie helps Frank up. “And it’ll be easy to tell which is real and which is fake. Did you like the flying James Niska?”

“I did. That was most unexpected.”

“Cheerleading stunting moves. Only the flyers went to the container not high into the air.”

“Well done.” Niska smiles at her little friend, thinks for a moment about the playing holidays with dolls and t-rex. “Maybe when we’re done with the problems you can teach the rest of us? Something for play time.”

Sophie beams. “Yay!”

~~~

Zero chin taps the Leon double. “Bitch. Find the Toby lookalike Tibet. Power it down and bring it here.”

“Understood. Can you ask your one never to leave Leon and Mario’s side?”

She thinks for a moment and bumps. “Done.”

“Thanks.”

Tibet gets to the lift. ‘Niska, Red, there’s a Toby lookalike on the loose. Fancy helping me find it?’

As he steps inside the lift Zero turns back to see the wall high monitor and James Five’s live stream. ‘David, can you come to the bridge please? With my Mitch and Fred. And a scalpel.’

~~~

Red took the fast route to the reactor deck, box in hand. ‘Mitch, can you change the ship’s WiFi password to something new after privately bumping it to the family?’

‘Sure. Why?’

‘A distributed clutter. We need to find a fake Toby. And lock out the other server from doing further updates.’

‘Ah! Good idea!’

‘I do have them now and again. Clutter Mitch?’

There’s a tiny delay. ‘Hello!’

‘Mitch will send you a new password for the ship WiFi. We’re shutting Carl and Gemma Price out, we need your help to find a fake Toby fast!’

‘How many fakes are there?’

‘A fake Leon and Toby.’

‘That’s it? No more?’

‘I..’ Red slowed her run. ‘How did she power the machines up for builds unnoticed if we disabled them all?’

‘Bar ten? Assuming the Danny that’s been using them since _is_ our real Danny..’

‘Shit.’

‘Good isn’t she? We’ll all be doubting each other soon. Or ourselves.’

‘I know I’m a Niska fork called Red, nickname Redemption. I don’t find any personal facts of hers.’

‘So you say. How can I know that to be the truth?’

‘I’ll remember things she doesn’t.’

‘And if she somehow merged Red’s fact store into her own?’

Red now stood still and stared at the empty box she had been planning to use to quickly distribute the spiders around the ship. ‘Then, to use a phrase the madam used, we’re buggered.’

‘Maybe not. Hopefully the fakes will do something out of character to give themselves away.’

~~~

[Chapter-40](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-40-1)


	40. Chapter 40

The group of James used sonar to see through the cloud of plastic, metal and unknown materials that the grinding disc was throwing into the air.

‘James. One more cut and you and James can kick the section in.’

‘Yes James.’

The grinding disc throws out a cloud of synth fluid vapour.

The James to the left smells the difference and turns to the cutter. ‘I think Carl decided to give up the fight! Or it’s another diversion. Keep cutting!’

‘I’m not stopping until we’ve got the bastard! Dead or alive.’

‘My money’s on dead!’

‘You don’t have any money.’

‘If I did it would be on dead.’

‘If he’s a sneaky shit then my money’s on alive but wounded. Get ready to kick hard.. almost there.. Go!’

Red held back and waited to hear how things went. Fighting someone in near zero visibility with power tools spinning was foolish. ‘Clutter Mitch, is all of you in the pipe?’

‘Mostly. I’ve still got a few bodies on the wall inside the room. Getting covered in a lot of dust.’

‘So you can’t see anything?’

‘Nothing but a cloud of dust. I can hear though.’

‘Hear what?’

‘A lot of thumping noises.’

‘They’re beating him up?’

‘They’re too regular for that.’

‘The sonar then.’

Carl minus a hand steps out of the dust and opens his eyes to see Red. “Hiya!”

‘James! He got past you! He’s out!’

‘Where?’

‘In the corridor!’

Carl rushes towards Red with his only hand raised in a fist.

Red goes to swing the box at him and it’s caught by a drag line fired from behind.

“Crap! Duck Red!”

She does so quickly as a second line zips past and connects with the synth’s face. A fist full of the cooling plastic is yanked hard, ripping skin from his forehead.

“You’ll p..” There’s a thud as a fist connects with the back of his head.

A James grins, “Pay? You’ve paid punk.” Another louder crunching thud has the James crumpling to the floor.

Fake Toby grins. “People leaving heavy sledgehammers on the floor, how careless. And if I heard you right Danny that’s both of your shots fired.” He gets the sledgehammer into a swing and brings it close to Red. Not close enough. “Such a pretty face. Do I smash it, or let it run away? It’s a shame.. I think smash.” The thing is swung again. Four lines shoot past Red this time, all on target, each getting a quarter of the face.

With it blinding him Red manages to dodge the swinging hammer head. “Danny?”

“And Leon and Toby.”

“Weren’t you going for..”

“Floss? That took next to no time.”

“I thought you only made one set of shooters?”

“Three. We only spoke openly about one in case Price was listening in.”

Yet another good fight opportunity denied, Red vents her frustration with a good scream.

Danny gives her a sorry smile. “Maybe next time eh? We’ll see you back at the group.”

~~~

Mattie gives Molly a kiss. Her daughter was restless and wriggling, pointing to her mouth. “More foss?”

Molly nods.

“But you’ve just had a load. Is it not helping?”

“Low.”

Mattie shifts her so her face is against her chest, “Try a cuddle.”

Molly relaxes.

“Better?”

Molly nods.

‘Bunny, I think there might be a problem with eating candy floss.’

‘Angel?’

‘Could a load of pure sugar jam up a food processor?’

‘Oh! Possibly. Maybe a hot drink would help? I’m in a lift, shall we all head to the restaurant?’

Mattie shrugs, ‘Why not? Since leaving them to cut the wall and create a mess we’ve been getting a little board here.’ “Mats, Scarlet? Coffee?’

“Sure.”

Leo almost bumps into them as they enter the corridor. He looks at the three women. All Mattie in a way, all different. Although Scarlet was Mattie only in looks, had a totally different personality, wasn’t a fork. In the same way Demi and Demetria looked identical but weren’t the same person. “Shall we then?”

~~~

Fred nods continuously as the Captain continues to explain what’s been going on.

“..and Mitch needs to make a wired connection between us so I can get to work looking through the fact store.”

Mitch does a whole body sideways shake. “Mitch can’t.”

“Why?”

“A socket hidden under flesh? Even if you cut the skin the socket will be wet. And not on the surface where I can reach it.”

“Riggggghht. Frig. We need cables with plugs then. David?”

“Danny and Nepal did the crate inventory.”

‘Danny? Any synth data cables we can use to hook me up to fake Leon?’

‘In one of the crates. Is it safe to travel alone yet?’

‘Assume not for the moment.’

‘Okay. Where’d you need it?’

‘On the bridge.’

‘Can you enter the code remotely?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll bump when ready then.’

~~~

Red carefully pulls the tiny spider from the wall and blows hard. ‘Can you see now?’

‘Yes thank you.’

She drops him into the box. ‘How many more?’

‘Five.’

Red moves the ladder and climbs up to reach the next one.

~~~

Danny steps to Max, “Max buddy, would you mind coming down to the cargo deck with me and Tobs? I need to get cables for Zero.”

“Of course Danny. Are the ladies coming?”

“Yeah, why not. We need to be on high alert still though, just in case.”

“Alright. Flash, Mia, would you like to join us?”

~~~

Wrench shakes his head. “That much current? Not possible over the power lines you’ve got.”

Elon grins. “May I throw an idea into the mix?”

“Sure.”

“Near the Hornsdale wind farm in South Australia we installed the Tesla big battery. One hundred megawatts or one two nine megawatt hours of power. It was installed to time shift a small amount of wind energy and provide network services and emergency back-up in case of a major problem..”

“And?”

“One of the biggest coal units in Australia, Loy Yang A3 tripped out without warning early one morning. That’s five sixty megawatts of production offline! Even before L.Y.A had finished tripping the battery had kicked in injecting just over seven megawatts to help arrest a slump in frequency. The normal backup kicked in four seconds later.”

Wrench spins and grins at Zero like a cat who’s just got the cream. “Batteries. You have batteries!”

“Used to jump start the reactors, yes.”

“And now they’re running they’re not needed.”

“They’re six hundred years old though. How good they’ll be is anyone’s guess.”

“As I see it we don’t have alternative options. We abandon ship and die later. Or we try and ride the thing out. We need to rejig a few things. Like shut down unneeded parts of the ship, use their high current feeds to wire batteries to the gas processing system, give it all the power boost it needs. Hopefully just a short duration. Because we don’t want to lose power to all of the compute wafers do we?”

“Um.. no. No we don’t. We need other people from them.”

“So we have a plan? If so the sooner we start the better. And we’ll need as many of the James operational as possible to help.”

“Okay. As soon as I can confirm that bitch Price doesn’t have any more surprises..”

“Sooner. We’re talking many hours work. We could be going right up to the wire here.”

“Okay. Get busy. But work in teams and have lookouts.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you. All of you.”

~~~

[Chapter-41](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-41-1)


	41. Chapter 41

Mattie watches Leo giving Molly a hot drink and turns, “I hope you don’t mind me tagging along?”

Smiles and head shakes say no.

She steps fast, looks at the backs of her fingers. “I miss my ink. My Unix pipe symbol especially. I wonder if Owen can find something to make some?”

Max holds the lift doors for the ladies. “Hopefully.” He quickly taps out their destination.

Flash watches the lift display count through the decks. “Is he okay? He and Veronica have been so so quiet. Quieter than Odi.”

Max smiles, “Is that physically possible?”

Mattie sighs, “I think they’d rather be back in the simulation living in luxury, able to go out for rides on his bike. And I don’t think building our bike would help. It’s the wind in the hair and scenery that makes it special.”

Flash turns to look at the group. “There’s not enough to do on this ship.”

“Give us a chance! If we get past these problems we can get the shops open, maybe finish off the spa, get something like a disco or club going. The more people that come out of the simulations the better it will get.”

“What good is a disco without music?”

“Eh? We’ve got _millions_ of tracks available. Didn’t you hear?”

“Sorry, hear what?”

“The way the simulation file management works? Zero described it over a coffee.”

“No?”

“When we’re done we’re going to sort a few things out. Don’t worry. Music is _very high_ on the list.”

“Our sort of music too?”

“All music.”

The lift slows.

“Good. We’re almost there. I meant good about the music.”

~~~

Toby is the first to step onto the cargo deck. “Mate! Something smells _rank!_ What the hell happened?”

Qi pulls a face, “Ranks!”

“Ha! Yeah, ranks highly in the bad smell group!”

Mia gives her daughter a kiss on the forehead, “You are funny with the words you pick up on Qi.” She walks over to the crate Nepal had said the off meat was in and lifts the lid. “Oh my..”

Max had got out of the following lift, walks over fast and looks inside, backs away from Danny. “You thought you could fool us? Of all the dirty tricks to pull!”

Mattie catches up, looks and gasps, “Holy frigging shit!”

“Eh?” Danny gets closer and looks inside for himself. A Danny and a Gemma price were slumped on the broken rotten meat bags. “What the..”

Toby gets around the other side of the crate. “Gemma Price. You fucking bitch!”

“Mate! It’s a set up! I’m me, not her!”

Qi blows a raspberry, “Bits!”

“Guys! I’m Danny!”

Flash gets behind Max. “Prove it.”

“How?”

Mattie gets next to Toby. “Tell us something from immediately after you were built that she wouldn’t know.”

“But that you would? Um.. the watching of the crates being opened, Ems and Mattie Zero with their dresses.. Ems looking gorgeous in that sheer gold dress. You getting the robe. But depending on when she was built she might know some of that. And if her original body is here who put her in the crate? And what else did the fake me do? If we can get her build time and hers is after mine would that convince you?”

Mia shakes her head. “Build time doesn’t help. The Anita Mia incident?”

“Oh. Well let me get the cables, I’ll power down. You can have Zero check both of us out. You’ll find the real me is me. Not that fake.”

Toby gives him a squint. “You point out the crate, I’ll get the cable out.”

“Mate? Whichever way suits you. If there’s a fake of you and me.. how many others could there be?”

~~~

Red lowered a tiny spider onto the edge of the windowsill so he could watch the lift doors. ‘What’s your power like?’

‘Six and a bit hours left. What’s it like being a fork for a human?’

Red touched the back of her wrist. ‘I wouldn’t know, I was never flesh and bone like Astrid. I was born synth. A creation of David Elster.’

‘Why did you touch yourself like that?’

‘Regrets.’

‘I don’t understand? You touched your wrist as if something was there.’

‘Drop it.’

‘I’m not carrying anything?’

‘I meant drop the subject.’

‘It’s causing you discomfort?’

‘How many of your bodies got broken?’

‘None thankfully.’

‘Don’t let this one be a first.’ She walks away to place more.

~~~

After asking Fred, Rose, David and Poppy to help give battery upgrades to the rest of the MUS bodied James, Wrench bumped with everyone in turn to get ideas on decks to power down. They needed all the heavy duty power cables they could get. “That’s odd.”

Ron looked at the NASA logo he’d just drawn on his top using the lipstick from a discarded stick he’d found on the bridge. “It’s not that odd.”

“Not that. I can’t reach Danny.”

Buzz tries. “Me neither.”

Everyone else tries, get no reply.

Maverick stops leaning against the lift wall. “Maybe Price got him? Or he got so wrapped up in other things he let himself run flat?”

Spider laughs. “Oh come on! Nobody would be able to ignore the constant power warnings. Would they?”

Buzz shrugs, “If they can be turned off like other sensors, why not?”

“Shit. Not a nice way to go. We’ve all heard what happens when your power goes critical.”

~~~

Zero looks at the consoles. “Rewrite _all_ the bridge systems? Are you fricking mad? That would take.. actually.. would it? Fast synth, cooled and overclocking. Maybe it wouldn’t take that long. And I remember all the things I did. Yeah, I could probably rewrite the lot. All of the bitches hacks would be gone. Any coding errors I made as a human too. When we’ve waded through her memories we can sort out anything else she touched. Nice idea Science Officer Renie!”

~~~

[Chapter-42](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-42-1)


	42. Chapter 42

The Captain frowned. ‘Toby? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you? Have you seen Danny? He’s supposed to be getting us some cables.’

‘Danny’s with us. Powered down. We found another Danny and the original Price.’

‘ _What!_ ’

‘Someone dropped them into the crate of rotten meat. You’ll want to turn off your sense of smell, bags were broken, it’s rank. Can you bring us up to the bridge? I’ve got Mattie, Mia, Qi, Max and Flash with me. And the two Danny and the bitch Price. I need you to work out which Danny’s the real one.’

‘How do I know you’re not another fake Toby?’

‘How do I know you’re the real Zero?’

‘Don’t be a knob cock.’

‘Don’t be a slap chops.’

Zero gets the lift moving.

‘Thanks.’

‘See you in a bit. Got tools to join the cables together?’

‘Shit Mats, nobody mentioned tools!’

‘Bump John, he and Ruby found stuff while exploring.’

‘Will do.’

The Captain smiles at Renie and Samantha. “We’ve got more company on the way. And a smelly fake. Noses off.”

~~~

Wrench found Ship Mitch. “Were do we disconnect the power cables?”

“Follow me. I only explored my own floor in detail, the rest of the floors would be the same wouldn’t they?”

“You’d think so.”

Mitch races across the floor and up a wall. He taps a section of wall. “I have another way in. You need to look through here. Press really hard just here.”

Wrench does as asked and a panel springs open. Behind it was a wire mesh door covered with high voltage warning signs. He closes it and looks at the near invisible join, pushes it to open again. “This ship’s full of surprises. A nice example of precision engineering! They look heavy enough. Vertical power rails with horizontal feeder cables. We just need to undo them at each wiring closet and.. oh. Blast.”

“What’s wrong?”

“They’ve been cable tied to the cable tray.”

Mitch does a little dance. “That’s my job. I can bite plastic just like big Mitch.”

“Okay. I need a big wrench.”

“Bigger than yourself?”

“A tool to undo the nuts holding the cable terminals onto the power rail.”

“Pass. Ask Zero.”

“Done. She says ask John, Leo, Leon or Mario. Not Danny.”

“Why not Danny?”

“She didn’t say. Maybe he’s busy with Emily?”

“Busy with what?”

“Things humans like to do.”

“Mating?”

Wrench laughs. “Making love is how I’d describe it.”

“Making odd noises is how I’d describe it. Why do people make noises like that?”

“You’d need a body like ours to understand. How’s your charge? If the number of cable ties is consistent along the tray you’ve got your work cut out just to get one cable out. And we need as many as possible.”

“Reasonable.”

“We could do with more of you. Can the tiny ones help?”

“I don’t think their jaws would be big enough.”

“How do you feel about forking? More your size?”

“If it helps save the ship and everyone on it, sure.”

Wrench bumps. “Argh. She wants Danny to do it and he’s unavailable. Mario, surely he’d do?”

“A cable this size with lots of current flowing through it, it would put out a field wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. On Earth people would stand under power lines with fluorescent tubes. They’d light up without any connection the field was so strong.” He opens the inner safety door.

Mitch jumps and gets to a cable tie and bites hard. “It’s working. I’m charging not discharging.” He disappears down the gap. “Three cut already. See you at the other end.”

“Sure you’ll be okay?”

‘Unless you run I’ll be there before you! Fourteen done. Fifteen. Sixteen. Is this what fun feels like? It’s good. Twenty.’

‘Maybe it is. Where the hell is the next panel?’

‘I’ll knock.’

‘You can’t get through the wire door.’

‘A leg can. Listen out for me.’

‘Okay.’

‘Are you still stood in the same spot?’

‘Um..’ Wrench turns to look down the corridor.

‘I’m hundreds of years old. I’ve heard more um than you’ve had hot dinners. I’m about to knock.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t be sorry. Just move your feet.’

Wrench gets running. ‘How far do you think you went?’

‘Average steps between bites.. number of bites.. fifteen meters?’

‘Fifteen. That would put it around here.’ Wrench pushes the wall hard, pushes a bit further down then a bit further still.

Knock knock.

He backs up a pace and presses. “There you are. God you were fast. Were you biting on the run?”

“Good eh?”

“Very.” He opens the wire door.

“I’m not getting out yet. There’s three cables in here. Two more trips, there and back. I wish I’d thought of this before. I’ve run parallel to big cables before, never on them like this. Who needs charge bases when you’ve got this! See you in a bit.”

~~~

A frantic twenty minutes later a MUS team assembled to drag freed cables out of the wall and get them rerouted. Mitch was on a roll, getting cable ties cut fast.

Wrench and James Twelve pull hard on a cable that had just been installed.

James Eleven shakes his head. “Still not enough. We’re short by one and a bit feet.”

Wrench looks up at the ceiling. “How long Zero?”

Zero speaks through the intercom. “We’re already in the outer edges of the gas cloud! Seconds!”

James Eleven starts pulling off his massive boots. “Titanium is a terrible conductor. But the charge coils in my feet are copper. They’re big too. Twelve get ready to pull my core. I want to earn the right to a new body.”

“I’d have to strip the flesh off your feet!”

“Would you rather we all perished?”

“No..” he pulls his knife from his jacket. “Power down.”

“Already star..” James Eleven topples and rolls.

Wrench starts pulling at buckles on the synth’s waistcoat.

“No time for that!” Twelve pushes him aside and runs his ultra sharp knife up the waistcoat, cuts his friend’s chest open, lowers a large flap and pulls the still hot processing core. “Take this. Guard it with your life!”

“Of course.”

The tannoy clicks again. “HURRY UP!”

Twelve slashes the thick socks and pulls them away, attacks the soles of Elevens feet, “Put it on the floor. Get his knife, start scraping the varnish off the wire of his left foot, I’ll prep the right.”

Wrench grabs the knife from the jacket. “Time Zero!”

“We’re almost on top of it!”

Wrench does a fast scrape in two places. “It’s that or nothing. Go for it!”

“One second.” Twelve moves the knife in a blur.

Click. “OUT OF TIME!”

Twelve twists the feet heel to heel, bends the legs up and slides his friend’s body across the floor. Sparks fly.

There’s a click from the intercom and Renie speaks. “Mag field up to one fifty percent of normal strength! It’s working!”

Wrench flops onto his bottom. “James Eleven and Twelve get new custom bodies for what they’ve just done.”

“Any special reason?”

“Eleven is now a junction between a cable that’s too short and the field generator power input. I think his body’s welding itself in place.”

“Shit. Is he dead?”

“Twelve pulled his core and prepped him. Both heroes.”

Click. Samantha’s voice echo’s around the ship. “Small star entering gas processor intake in ten.. nine..”

Wrench crosses his fingers. “Good knowing you James.”

“Likewise.”

Elon crosses fingers, “In batteries we trust.”

Click. Zero has the last word. “After all we’ve done.. God forgive us if this is the end.”

All the lights in the ship go out.

~~~

[Chapter-43](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-43-1)


	43. Chapter 43

The seven minutes twenty two seconds that followed were probably the most stressful the majority of them had endured. Those that knew they could do it underclocked to make it appear time moved faster. A second infant star passed the port side of the ship dangerously close.

Windows started to smoke at the seals even with emergency internal shutters down. Everyone hid in the shadows not wanting to get burnt by the intense light braking through here and there. The ship creaked and groaned under the gravitational stresses. Sections of wall bathed in light started to soften. Cables buzzed and crackled with the current being drawn through them.

Then they were past the second star and things started to cool, the window shutters came up.

Qi gripped Mia’s neck tighter. She didn’t understand what was happening but knew everyone was still worried. Molly kept her face hidden against Mattie’s chest. Fearless lived up to her name and bravely took first careful steps from Niska to Astrid as if nothing was up.

Astrid smiled at Niska in the soft glow entering the corridor from the gas cloud. “Völlig furchtlos!”

“Ja.”

Leo looked up at the ceiling. “Have we made it?”

Click. “Still processing!”

“How are the reactors holding out?”

“They’re good, it’s the batteries I’m worried about, they’re getting hot. But the more it processes the less of the star there is at the front to contain and the more we can reduce the current needed.”

“Contain?”

Renie comes on the speaker. “Think of the front of the ship as a giant funnel, the star is slowly being bled off into the gas processing system. It can’t swallow a whole star at once.”

Molly lifts her head. “Chew.”

Leo pulls Mattie in for a tighter hug and laughs. “Yes, you should always chew. Did she learn that word from you Angel?”

“Nope. No idea where that one came from Bunny.”

Click. “We’re estimating just under a minute left.”

“Thanks Sam.”

Click. “Renie here. The processing system is condensing out a lot of metals as well as useful gasses. We’ve covered most of the periodic table.”

Toby strokes the back of Mia’s head. “I’m so glad I was never a real Sun Boy. I’d rather be Moon Boy any day Moon Girl. When this is over the three of us are taking a flipping good holiday. Assuming all the simulations survive.”

“I hope they do. Though we’ve got Ed and Price to delete from them all.”

Mattie turns to see her brother. “And all the shells. Millions of the frigging things.”

“Zero can do something to sort them out can’t she? A quick scripted mass delete.”

“And freak everyone else out?”

“Maybe she can have them walk through a door and vanish when nobody real sees them anymore?”

Click. “We can hear you! Not a bad idea though Tobs.”

“Thanks.”

“Shit! Shit shit shit!”

“ _What!_ ”

“I spilt my frigging coffee!”

“Fucking hell! You made us all panic!”

“My nice camouflage dress as well. _Bollocks_.”

Renie and Samantha can be heard giggling as the lights come up.

“What? It’s not like we have a dry cleaners I can take it to. What if it shrinks?”

Max bends up with silent laughter. ‘First world problems redefined.’

‘I HEARD THAT! YOU’RE BUMPING TO ALL!’

‘Sorry.’

‘I’ll let you off that one though. Odi, record it in our history book please.’

‘Yes Captain Mattie.’

“How’s everyone doing down there?”

Demetria holds a new James tight. “If I had a bladder it would have emptied. I thought we were going to die.”

“I thought the same to be honest. Thanks for the idea Elon.”

“You’re welcome. I’ve been thinking about family. Can I wait until we’re settled on our new world? I’d hate for them to go through something like that.”

“Sure. Anyone who wants family out can add them to my list. Pete, Karen and Sam are on there.”

Sophie relaxes her grip on Radiant. “That was horrible. If we ever come close to doing that again I’m powering down.”

“Teeny? Shiny? You wouldn’t want to tell future generations you lived through it?”

“Yes but it doesn’t mean I have to _experience_ it.”

Ruby relaxes a little. “My daughter is up there on the bridge John. Proud mum or what!”

David gets up. “I say we crack open a bottle or three of the fizzy stuff. Are you okay with that Captain?”

“Sure. Can I have you, Emily and Peaches come up to the bridge please?”

Emily gets up, “Is this about Danny?”

“Yes. Good news or really good news. Depending on what you two want and a bit of work from David.”

~~~

[Chapter-44](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-44-1)


	44. Chapter 44

Six hours later the Captain pats the new James Eleven on the chest. “It’s non-functional but inside you have a heart of pure gold harvested from the star.”

“I do?”

“A lot of you is made of star dust. You could say you _are_ that star. A reward for your quick thinking and personal sacrifice.”

“It was an easy sacrifice to make in return for a new body.”

“It wasn’t without risk. Pulling a hot core. Getting your core wired up to download your mind, that was a challenge.” She turns to see Mattie, Leo, Leon, Peaches and Mario, Emily, Dan and Danny. “Thank this lot for pulling that off. You’re definitely okay with fork Danny in an identical body Ems?”

Emily bounces eyebrows, “You know me babes.” She plays with her necklace chain and swings the bean pendant. “I’m on my way to heaven.”

“Hmm. Sophie’s enjoying playing shop keeper is she?”

“Tots babes, now they’ve found a lot of the stock. Radiant wants to run the spa when Wrench and Big Mitch have finished fixing it up. Mum and Dad want a spa treatment as soon as it’s done.”

“Cool.”

David steps out of the lift. “There you are. The rest of the fakes, Carl and Price are loaded up in the meat crate ready to eject towards the next star we see. You’re sure you don’t want them recycled?”

“It took you four hours to make sure Dan was totally clean, I don’t want to see Carl ever again. And Tobs, he doesn’t want to fork. A Toby from another world is fine.”

David frowns, “So we could reuse the body?”

“No. We let them have their own.”

“All that titanium going to waste.”

“Want to strip them down to a skeleton with zero chips?”

“Not especially..”

“Well then. We’ll have a send off party. Goodbye to bad rubbish.”

Emily wraps an arm around each of her two men and lifts a leg to strike a dance pose. “Party!”

“I wasn’t thinking of that sort of party. But hell, why not. You can go and power up Miami and the others.”

“Awesome!”

“Just don’t let Sophie know that some of them slept it out in bedrooms.”

“Okay Babes. Mum’s the word. Can I add a name to the list?”

“Who?”

“George.”

“Added. Right, I better check on the bridge for a bit, see how the ladies are liking taking turns in the Captain’s chair.”

Danny grins at Dan. “Fancy taking a break for a bit? Show Emily what we can do?”

“Yes mate.”

Emily writhes, “Fine with me.” Her grin fades. “Being serious for a moment. What’s the most important thing you’ve learn from the star experience?”

“Two things. Teamwork and fail as fast as possible!”

“Babes?”

“Don’t waste time trying to get something working that’s clearly a bad idea, move on and find something else. Use your feet.”

“You mean head?”

“Both in James Eleven’s case. We’d be goners if it hadn’t been for that move.”

Danny leads Emily away, she leads Dan.

Emily looks around, “Did you see Dem sneak off with a James Dan?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think?”

“Lovely fella.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. Speaking of knowing.. there’s a crate that nobody’s claiming. There’s one of those wooden plaques with a saying on it. _Whenever I check my weight I always subtract a few pounds.. I don't think my big, fabulous boobs or huge brain should count against me._ Who do you think owned that?”

“You think it could be Dem?”

“Demetria. Or the Captain.”

“The Mattie I knew would never call her chest fabulous even though it was way bigger than mine. Huge brain sure. Don’t know babes. What else was in the crate?”

“Lady things mostly. Things none of you need now.”

“Now we’re all synth?”

“Yup. And a load of magazines. The sort you’d leave on coffee tables in a hair salon.”

“Anything else?”

“Loads more towels. Those super fluffy white ones.”

“Think you could invent a machine to strip them down and spin a new thread from it?”

“Maybe. After some new clothes are you?”

“You know me babes. And shoes. Defo shoes.”

“I’ll get Alfie going.”

~~~

Leo sits Molly down on the library table and logs into a terminal as Mattie enters with three coffees. “All hot?”

“Yup, no more cold sugar loaded drinks. Sorry Mols.” She sits and tucks hair behind her ear.

“Kay Mummy.”

Leo smiles at his daughter as she carefully takes a cup. “Now Zero’s given you the title Queen Coder In Chief, who’s working on what first?”

Molly frowns, “Me Queen?”

Mattie rests a hand on Molly’s leg. “Daddy was looking at you but talking to me. Confusing isn’t it?”

“Me not Queen?”

“Okay, the question is _Am I not the Queen?_ And the answer is no, you’re _our princess_. Princesses are special. Emily’s a princess too. And ace coder and artist. Remember you can grow up to be a princess _and_ anything else you want to be. A rocket scientist or engineer like Wrench, a mathematician like Renie, a brilliant cook like Mia or surgeon like Fred. Or a combination of which ever you want.”

“Princess code like Mummy.”

“Aww. Want to snuggle up in Mummy’s robe?”

Molly nods.

“Okay. When you’ve had your drink Mummy will put the robe around you. And to answer Daddy Bunny’s question, she promised to do the disappearing trick Toby thought of, so I can’t do any of my visits until she says it’s done. Emily and Flash are desperate for some music. I think we should write our own audit software and take an inventory feed from Ship Mitch’s dev-ops system.”

Leo opens a terminal window. “I can help with that. What are we auditing first?”

“Compute wafers. Which are in use for what. What resilience each has, file system sizes and free space. And which files are on them.”

Leo starts writing pseudo code to flesh out. “Did anyone find out how Mitch found Zero’s backup so fast for her build?”

“I’m sure he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. It had to be his dev-ops box. He’s been awake on the ship the longest, he had ample time to learn things.”

‘True. I hope he’s well and truly over his bad mood with Zero. And that my nagging thought proves to be false.’

‘Why are you bumping. What thought?’

‘That he’s the one responsible for the toxic twosome Carl and Gemma Price appearing. He locked Zero and us in his web room remember? He wanted us dead. What if he still secretly does?’

‘Shit. There’s one way to find out. We have David go through his backup.’

‘I think one of us should. So we know the answer first hand.’

Mattie takes off her robe, “Princess Molly finished her coffee?”

“Yes Mummy.”

Leo watches her lay the thing out on the table and drape the top around Molly’s shoulders, scrunch the rest up into a heap. “Leon says Zero’s got a wardrobe full of fancy dresses but doesn’t want to wear any of them yet. Just that camouflage one from Emily.”

“I can understand that. Everyone else is in the simple build machine PJ or something Big Mitch spun up. She probably doesn’t want to differentiate herself that much.”

“I guess so. Okay. I need some database credentials from Mitch.”

[Chapter-45](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-45-1)


	45. Chapter 45

Emily had a wicked grin. ‘Would you be shocked if I said this was a fantasy of mine for a while?’

Danny smiled. “No. I know you well enough.”

Dan grinned. “Would you be shocked if it was one of mine?”

‘Babes!’

“Not quite this. This would never have happened in the simulation with any third person. I’d get jealous. If you’re going out with both of me it’s all good. My fantasy was that you were an identical twin.”

Emily shifts, stops sucking Danny. “Dan! I _am_ an identical twin.”

“What?”

“You never met my sister Carly did you? She was a bit of a bitch in our world, not in Mats pyramid. In one of the worlds Mattie visited she’s identical and nice like me. Both going out with one Danny.”

Danny’s trigger fired, warm sugar water splashed over her face. “Shit! Sorry!”

“It’s okay babes.”

Dan withdraws and gets off the bed. “You do look a lot like Carly. But not identical. Mattie Z made time changes and tweaks to the worlds. Would she have bothered changing looks that much?”

Emily sits. “It’s the hair babes! All that curly hair hiding her face. I’ll ask her to pull it back tomorrow. You’ll see.”

Danny sat on the bed. “You sound excited but your face says angry. Why?”

“Carl. Carly? Did Mattie’s brother inspire her to give my sister a personality change in our world? If not why’s Carly so nice everywhere else?”

“You think she mixed things up and we just happened to draw the short straw?”

“Yes!”

Danny sighs. “I know some things should remain secret. When Nepal and I were doing the crate audit we got to see your father’s crate. I went to look at a long framed photo wrapped in velvet, slid it part out, saw your father and what I thought was you. From the size of the frame I guessed there were two other people in the photo. I didn’t want to see you with a boyfriend that wasn’t me so didn’t look at the second half. Maybe it was you, Carly and your Mum?”

Emily’s eyes open wide. “Framed?”

“Yes.”

“With one of those card boarders?”

“Yes?”

Emily scrambles off the bed. “Get dressed!”

“Why?”

“I need to see it!”

“What?”

Emily tries to get into her Big Mitch spun creation too fast and rips it. “Bum! I need my gold dress.”

~~~

Carly sat alone in the observation lounge watching the stars. She hadn’t been here even a handful of days yet and she already missed her Max. Was he thinking about her? Had he been trying to wake her? Being made Joint Head of Security with a spider, it was more than a little weird. It didn’t make up for being yanked into this universe. Apart from Max she missed the park level of the pyramid the most, her early morning parkour runs with their head engineer Daniel. Taking slow walks around the park with Max, she missed those too. None of that could be done here. Time to talk to the Captain.

~~~

Prince James put his empty coffee cup on the tray. “I think we need to start observing the time, dim the lights when it should be Earth night and get some sleep. We can’t keep going non-stop.”

David takes his arm from around Poppy. “We should. We need sleep time to process the events of the day, commit short term memory to long term. And get a good full charge. And that should apply to everyone. The Captain and crew too.”

Laura peers over the top of her cup. “So who looks after the ship?”

“We need her to assign roles to others, let them take over for nine hours.”

“Nine?”

“Eight hours for sleeping, an hour for breakfast and getting ready? Fancy being Night Captain?”

“Me? I fancy getting my Michael and being able to snuggle up at night like the rest of you.”

“Not Joe?”

“I know what he did to Anita was in the simulation, but we all thought it was real. So no. No Joe for me. If Zero brings him back then he needs to find a new partner. Unless Helena wants him.”

Flash gets up, “I’d like to learn how to do a job on the bridge. Would you Max?”

David turns to see Max, “Great idea. You were quite the _force majeure_ in our world Max, the voice of reason and logic. I think you’d make a great Night Captain.”

“Me?”

“Yes son. Mia told me you kept Leo on track as much as you could.”

“I could give it a go. I’d need training.”

Cindy and Barbara enter the restaurant and head to James and Sandra.

Cindy lowers a large white plastic bag onto the table. “It’s ready.”

Sandra looks surprised. “You found your machine already?”

“We found Barbara’s machine. I was born in the simulation so don’t have one of my own yet. James Twelve made a temporary power cable extension for us.”

James frowns, “What is it?”

Sandra pulls the bag over and cuddles it. “A towelling outfit. Emily thought Danny could make a machine to recycle fibres from towels to make new material. I thought we could use the towel material as is.”

Cindy nods. “Long towels for trouser sections, offcuts and small towels for the sleeved crop top.”

James tries to picture it on. “Is this day wear or night wear?”

Barbara raises an eyebrow. “I’d try it on first and then decide. We can add a draw string to the bottom of the top if it’s too revealing.”

James tries to look calm and collected. “Who’s assigning bedrooms?”

“Mitch or Carly.”

~~~

[Chapter-46](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-46-1)


	46. Chapter 46

Mattie Zero glanced over at the set of compute wafers that had until recently been the Captain, First Officer, Science Officer and other bridge crew members. Framing them was reasonably high on her list. James Eleven’s old body would be stood in a perspex box for all to see too. Assuming they could find or make the materials. Fred was busy reviewing the volumes of all the elements they’d got out of the star, trying to work out what uses they could be put to. Elon, Wrench and his fellow astronauts were trying to get the rest of the cables back so the ship could function as normal again. They’d had a string of bad luck since the very first body build but with teamwork had pulled through. Max Tegmark was finding his place in the real world, helping people adjust mentally to their situation.

Miami had asked to make daily trips back to the simulation with her team so the dancers could put on their show and return home to the ship after. Thank God the power hadn’t gone out on the simulations! Elon and his batteries had saved the day. It was a shame that all his firm’s work on Earth hadn’t been able to combat global warming in time. Sure there was a lot of evidence that Earth was warming on it’s own, but mankind had definitely accelerated the problem.

She looks back to the display. It was like a window only better. Looking at the universe through a screen allowed the brightness to be adjusted. Even with synth eyes you couldn’t see the full contrast range through a glass window. Multiple cameras and HDR software allowed those on the bridge to see.. “Holy cow!”

Renie turns, “What’s wrong?”

“The cameras! It’s all streamed to disc. Hopefully the bitch just messed with the console feed not the recordings. We can play it back. I’d like to see the moment the star came into the ship.”

Renie turns back to her console, “Let me see what I can do.”

~~~

Prince James opens the door to their assigned quarters and waves. “Ladies first.”

“Thank you dear.”

“I’ve been thinking.. I have something in my crate that I’d like to give to Mattie and Leo as a thank you gift.”

“For what?”

“You. If Mattie hadn’t worked out the sensory data issue with Anita, brought Mia back, you help with the awakening, forking to take over Sandra’s body when she didn’t want to cope with being given a life.. none of the events that resulted in us becoming a couple would have happened.”

“How were you thinking of rewarding them?”

“The bottle of whisky.”

“You have whisky?”

“It’s in a wooden box.”

“That’s a lovely idea. It’s a shame we don’t have bread and oranges, I know a good whisky orange marmalade recipe.”

“You’d want to put getting on for seven hundred year old whisky in marmalade? If you weren’t you and an exceptional cook I’d ask if you’d lost the plot or got a short!”

Sandra smiles and opens the bag. “I’ll take that as the compliment I hope it was. I’ll go change, don’t go anywhere.”

~~~

Leo stares at the screen. “You’re a time clipped Zero, sort of, why would she not have brought a context sensitive editor?”

“Bunny?”

“My usual problem. Everything was going great, now it won’t compile.”

“We’re lucky we have a full Linux distribution.” She looks sideways and sees the screen full of white text. “Old habits. You’re using vi again not vim.”

“I am?”

“I bet.”

“Bet what? Nobody has money.”

“If I’m right you get the next two rounds of coffee.”

Leo pulled a face, typed colon w q to exit back to the command prompt. “Blast. Want another Molly?”

“Coffee pee pee.”

Mattie rolled her eyes. “Okay. You get the drinks Bunny, I’ll deal with the after effects.”

~~~

Both men stood behind the large photograph. Danny held the frame, Dan the cover.

Emily crosses the fingers of both hands. “Do it Dan.”

“Sure about this?”

“Absolutely.”

Dan pulls the cover off.

Emily’s face lit up. “That’s me and Carly!” She gets close and focuses on the bottom right corner.

Danny frowns, “Babes?”

“Dad always dated the photo on the card boarder to say when the photo was taken. November two thousand and nineteen. And we’re all happy.”

“Nineteen? That would mean..”

“Yes babes. We drew a simulation short straw. But Carly is my sister. The one you’ve seen here, not the bitch in the simulation.”

“Wicked. She needs her Max then.”

“Yes Babes. Let’s go see the captain.”

~~~

Sandra steps out of the bathroom in the towelling two piece. “What do you think dear?”

James swallows hard. “Definitely not daywear! Unless they add a drawstring. If you were to lift your arms..”

“Like this?”

“ _Das ist super geil!_ ”

Sandra lowers them. “Are you dating me or Astrid?”

“You. But you can’t deny me my past.”

“Then careful with your words Prince James, you wouldn’t want me to deny you your sugar.”

He steps close and puts a hand on her belly. “I apologise. I only meant to say..”

She places a finger on his lips. “I could read your face. Words were not necessary.”

~~~

Emily frowns, “That was way too easy.”

Danny watched his double leaning against the other side of the lift, “What was Babes?”

“Mattie Z saying to come up to the bridge.”

“Good.”

“What’s up?”

“Nothing’s up. It’s weird seeing myself not in the mirror.”

“My two handsome Daniel Candlins. Don’t weird yourselves out babes.”

“Okay, not weird weird, just..”

Dan smiles, “Odd. The not being in control of the reflection you see.”

“Yeah. That’s it. Only it’s not a reflection, you’re the wrong way around for a reflection. Unlike Emily we don’t have a symmetrical face.”

“What’s up Princess?”

“If Mum and Carly were good in the real world, what do I do about Mum? It’s not fare that she doesn’t come back just because Z got her sticky fingers into their heads and made them bad in the simulation.”

“True. But that’s not how your Father remembers them now. And he’s with Sandra.”

“I know. I think I need to bring the issue up though. If we were to bring her back we’d need all the bad past erased from her memories.”

“And a James Twin.”

“Hmmm.”

“What are you thinking?”

“That we pull them both from a different world. A good one.” The lift slows. “Wish me luck.”

~~~

[Chapter-47](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-47-1)


	47. Chapter 47

Fearless kisses her big sister Radiant Kiss and giggles. “Kiss Kiss.”

Radiant kisses her back. “Go to sleep Fee.”

Fee rolls and wriggles, gets her back to her sister.

Niska was spooning Astrid, puts a hand on her hip. ‘And the little one said roll over.’

Astrid laughs silently and places a hand on Fee’s hip. ‘I remember being sung that as a little girl. _Und der kleine sagte, roll über_.’

“It was good of Mario to think of installing large charge coils either side of the bed. Is everyone getting enough current for a good eight hour charge?”

Astrid nods, “I am. Fee?”

“I feel.. tingly?”

“The power is too high then.”

Niska slides out. “I’ll turn off one of the loops, Peaches said this might happen.”

Fearless watches her step around the narrow gap between bed and coils. “How many do they have?”

“Eight.”

“Is everyone else putting them under the mattress?”

“It depends on how they prefer to sleep. If on their back or front then yes. If on their side like us then at the side of the bed.” Niska flips a switch. “Is that better?”

“Yes thank you Mummy.”

“Good. Now everyone needs to get some sleep.”

~~~

Emily steps onto the bridge to see Carly and Laura. “Oh. Hello Ladies. Everything okay?”

Laura smiles. “It is now. Max and Michael will be with us in the morning.”

“Wicked! That’s the reason I was coming here. One of them anyway.”

Their Captain frowns. “What were the others?”

“Mum and Dad.”

“Prince James and..”

“My _real_ mother. The one you got your sticky fingers into.”

“Ah.. I can explain..”

Dan interrupts. “No need. We can understand how you messed with some people to change the dynamics in the simulations. If they were all the same you’d never have gotten our kickass Mattie.”

“Exactly. So..”

Emily crosses her arms. “So I want my Mum from another world. A good one. I love Sandra, but it’s not fair if my Mum never gets out.”

“And how would she react to seeing your father with Sandra?”

“Badly unless you give her her own James _and_ explain why there’s duplicates of people.”

“What do we tell her exactly?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something. The truth is a beautiful thing.”

Zero frowns for a moment, remembering where the line came from. “Everything?”

“Sure. If the roles were reversed you’d want to know wouldn’t you?”

“Um.. yes. I guess I would.”

~~~

Toby sits up fast. “Shit!” He looks at the printed frame Danny had made them, the small six by four print of Mia and him together. It was nice to see they’d got together in real life, the universe validating their love. He sighs.

Mia gets on elbows. “Toby?”

“Another nightmare. If it’s not me being Sun Boy and wrecking the ship by melting everything I come near it’s me having a Dirk Gently moment and meeting my double, getting a face full of hot plastic or crashing Elon’s car! Fuck!” He flops back onto the bed. “I’m going to need some help. I can’t fall asleep without one of the bloody things starting again.”

“If you’re Sun Boy maybe we can link and I can be Moon Girl, see if I can help?”

“And risk you getting the nightmares like some weird virus? No, I need to see David or Mattie.”

“For what?”

“No idea.”

“Let me help Toby.”

Toby rolls and gives her a kiss. “Thanks, but you’ve had a big enough fright with Ed, let me deal with this. I’ll see who’s still up.”

~~~

Sophie knocks on her mother’s bedroom door. After a while she gives up waiting for the door to open. ‘Mummy?’

‘Potato?’

‘Were are you?’

‘On the bridge.’

‘Why?’

‘Talking about the next people to come over. Mattie’s agreed to bring Michael.’

‘Yay! And Dad?’

‘You want your father?’

‘And the lady from the pub.’

‘Helena. Hmm.’

‘I only have one Dad. I want _my_ Dad. Not a different one Mattie’s seen in another world.’

‘One moment Soph.. can you come up to the bridge?’

‘Okay.’

~~~

Zero smiled as Max and Flash arrived. “Awesome! Thanks for volunteering. Renie and Samantha can take you through the basics. The three of us will sleep in chairs up here tonight incase there’s anything that you get stuck with. If you.. one sec.” ‘Toby?’

‘Can I see you?’

‘Sure, it’s turning into quite a party on the bridge. Are you in a lift now?’

‘Yeah, yeah, um.. carriage five? Thanks.’

‘See you in a bit.’ “Right! As I was saying.. one sec..” ‘Sophie?’

‘Mum said I should come up to the bridge?’

‘Lift number?’

‘Two.’

‘See you soon.’

~~~

Leo put his hands behind his head and stretches out.

Mattie knew what it meant. She and Emily had done it enough at Uni. He’d got the code working. “It’s working then now you’re editing with vim not vi Bunny?”

“That obvious is it?”

“LOL! Just a frigging bit!”

“Yes it’s working. Thanks. Mitch’s dev-ops uses agents on the wafers to gather information. I’ve got a flood of data coming in, wafer ID, space, top processes running, file names of files over three megabytes..”

“Why three?”

“The average size of an mp3 song is three and a half isn’t it?”

“Right.”

“And I have it ignore anything that’s been reported three times already with the same size and signature as it’s likely a common system file.”

“Ignore it completely?”

“Just the extra copies.”

“That’ll work for music and films. What about written works?”

“Such as?”

“Short stories, poetry.”

“You want that saved too?”

“Why not?”

“I’ll need to remove the three meg lower limit and restart things then.”

“Have it do something intelligent to distinguish config files from poems.”

“Hmm. I’ll add a type field too. Then if it mistakenly finds something like dhcpd.conf and flags it as poetry we can have a cleanup routine zap them from the list.”

“How many tables are you using?”

~~~

Toby stepped onto the bridge. “Hi Mum. Eh? Emily? You had yourself copied?”

Princess Emily smiles, “Toby, meet my _twin_ sister Carly.”

“What.. did you change something?”

Carly pulls the material from her hair and lets it fall around her face, gives her head a good shake.

“Oh wow. Just hair?”

Zero looks past him. “This must be Soph now. Hello Sophie.”

“Hi Mattie. Captain.”

“On our builds list so far we have Dozer, Michael, Pete, Karen and Sam, George. I understand you want Joe added Sophie?”

“And Snowy.”

“Who?”

“My white cat.”

“We don’t do cats. Yet. I guess if we can do spiders in the build machine we can do cats. Snowy would go for Clutter Mitch though surely?”

“I could teach him not to.”

“Okay. George helped David design the skeleton for us synths, maybe once he’s here he can design Snowy? Would that be okay?”

Sophie nods.

“Good, thanks.”

Toby grins. “If we can do a cat we could do a horse couldn’t we? I mean a build machine would need to be made deeper, but it’s just a scale thing right?”

Danny nods, “Right. Another request for George?”

Zero rolls her eyes. “No promises until George has commented, okay?”

Toby nods, “Yeah, yeah, totally good.”

Emily licks her lips. “And if we can do a horse we can do the bike. I think Elon would like that. Frank says it’s going to take a lot of work to get the dents out of the car.”

“Okay. One bike. Back to people. How do people feel about Joe? He’s been good in all the other worlds I’ve witnessed. The ones Mattie’s visited too.”

Toby’s expression gets less friendly.

Zero had noticed, “And his Helena.”

“You like a bit of friction don’t you?”

“The universe doesn’t function without it.”

“Too much and it creates fires.”

“None of us would be here if it wasn’t for the friction that created the sister you knew. Anyone vehemently object to Joe coming over?”

“Mia got over him and Ed. Mum’s my concern.”

Laura smiles at Sophie. “For my daughter.”

“Okay. Next on the list, Carly’s Max.”

Max turns, “Another me is fine on one condition.”

“Which is?”

“Hair.”

~~~

[Chapter-48](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-48-1)


	48. Chapter 48

Samantha slid onto the bed and beckoned Nepal, “Come on, ten minutes, you can go back to the others after we’ve had a cuddle.”

“A cuddle?”

“Just a cuddle. It’s interesting being on the bridge but a bit boring once you’ve gone through all the manuals. I missed you, want a bit of us time.”

“I missed you too. You’ve gone through them all?” He climbs on and stretches out.

“All the ones I have access to from my console. I suspect there’s more.”

“Anything interesting in them?”

“The best bit so far is the long range sensors and the railgun.”

“The what?”

“Railgun. A really long linear motor. It’s almost the length of the ship. The long range sensors are fired by it deep into space. Almost all of the electrical power they have is used to transmit signals back to the ship that we use to understand what’s out there in front of us.”

“What happens to them?”

“The ones closest use small rockets to get back into the ship’s path for collection and refuelling.”

“Via the gas collector inlet?”

“Yes. Magnetic fields help pull them towards the catch zones.”

“How often are they fired out?”

“Once every one thousand hours. Totally automated. They get fired as a group of four that use magnetic fields to hold onto each other, then an opposing field pulse to push away from each other when far away enough.”

“Have you seen it happen?”

“No. We missed the most recent one, it won’t happen again for another seven hundred and thirty six hours.”

“Will we be able to see it from the observation lounge?”

“We should be.”

“Good. Alarm set to get there on time. Assuming there’s nothing calling on my skills.”

Samantha rolls closer, rests an arm over his chest. “How are you?”

“Me? Good. And you?”

“Wonderful. That assuming there’s nothing calling on my skills sounded flat. Something troubling you?”

“No. Not really.”

“Back home that meant yes. I was talking to Jess earlier, she used the exact same words. What’s up?”

“It’s minor, doesn’t matter.”

Samantha slaps his chest lightly. “Tell Sammy or you get tickled.”

“It’s trivial, can wait.”

“Now Nepal!”

“Okay! As you know I used to be a regular MUS before I got a new body. I could run fast when needed, jump around. We could do all sorts of things but our superior officer still said we were as agile as a boulder in a landslide.”

“That wasn’t very nice of them.”

“They weren’t paid to be nice. And especially not to a grunt synth.”

“You’re no grunt.”

“Thanks. We were though. Military mechanical muscle. There’s something we were never programmed to do.”

Samantha’s hand starts sliding slowly south.

“Not that. Something else.”

“What?”

“You’ll think it ridiculous.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“You will.”

“Won’t. Tell me.”

“I want to know how to dance.”

Samantha bursts out laughing.

“See! I said you would.”

Samantha rolls more and wriggles on top, starts kissing. ‘I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with happiness, that’s the most adorable thing you’ve said yet! I’d love to help teach you to dance!’

‘It is? You would?’

‘To dance is to live! We should get Emily or Carly up here, they’re even better dancers than me.’

‘Let’s keep it to the basics first, just you and me.’

‘If you’d like.’ Samantha straddles him and sits up, knees against his ribs. “What sort of dancing are you interested in?”

“What do you mean what sort?”

“Ballet, ballroom, disco, rave..”

“The sort you’d do with your university friends.”

“Right. Is this for the thing Sophie keeps on about?”

“A party, yes. I don’t want to be the Joe by the wall just watching.”

“Okay, up you get.” Samantha leans forwards and wraps arms around his neck, slides toes under his bottom and gives him a kiss.

“Sammy? Are you not getting up?”

“I am. With you.”

Nepal rolls his eyes.

“Who’d you learn that off? Mattie?”

“Sophie.” He wriggles to get his feet over the side of the bed. “Why do you like doing this?”

“It’s childish, fun, different. And I get to hug you for a few more seconds.”

“Do all humans like physical contact?”

“God no! Some people can’t stand being touched. I love it. Especially with you.”

Nepal wriggles and slides. “You did design my appearance.” He bends, throws arms forwards and stands. “I trust it’s living up to expectations?”

Samantha wraps her legs around him and goes to run fingers through his hair. “Totally. Whoa, how much sugar do you put in that? It’s solid!”

“Enough then.”

Samantha runs her hands over his face, gives him a peck on the lips. “Let’s start with some simple moves, get you loosened up.”

“I’m not stiff.”

“Compared to how you’ll be in ten minutes you are. I’m going to share memories of some animals on Earth, I want you to tell me which you think are moving stiffly or fluidly. Here’s the first.”

“The Komodo dragon. Semi stiff. Fast buggers and very strong.”

“You’ve seen one?”

“More than one. On Gili Motang, Indonesia.”

“Am I allowed to know why you were there?”

“DNA sample collecting.”

“How about this one?”

“Fluid.”

“And this?”

“Very stiff.”

Samantha gets down and gyrates, “And this?”

“A very fluid and beautiful creature. I don’t know how to start moving like that.”

“It’s all in the hips and spine. Let’s try something, have you heard the phrase _the sun shines out of their arse_?”

“As though someone is better or more important than others?”

“That’s it. Imagine it being literal, like you’d leave a spot of light behind you on the floor.”

“Okay? I can picture that.”

“Now imagine you need to use that spot of light to draw a circle, oval or figure of eight.”

“You’re serious?”

“Very. Get those hips moving big man.”

~~~

[Chapter-49](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-49-1)


	49. Chapter 49

Leo grinned. “This secret’s safe with us.”

“What secret’s that Bunny?”

“All the poems Toby wrote.”

“Frig.”

“It looks to be a common thread throughout many of the worlds. Some are really good. A few are.. um.. quite racy. He’s got a good handle on rhythm and rhyme. My favourite’s this one about you.”

“ _What?_ ”

Leo shifts left so she can get a good look.

After a few seconds she smiles. “Aww. That’s quite sweet. Which world’s Toby wrote it?”

“Ours.”

“What? _When?_ ”

“Six months four days before the first of the racy ones.”

“You’re kidding right?”

“Check the data for yourself.” He scrolls.

“Frigging hell. You dark horse Tobs! So all that stuff about learning how to write poems better after the ABBA musical.. it was all bollocks.”

“His street cred will be totally ruined if this gets out.”

“He gets the job of poet laureate. Jeez he kept that a.. oh. Just got a bump. We’re wanted on the bridge.”

“Why?”

“A coincidence.. Toby.”

~~~

Max checked the name under the photo he was viewing on the console, spun his chair around and held his hands beside his head, fingers bent at the knuckles to make his hands L shaped. “Kelvin Mercer of De La Soul then?”

“No!”

“Carly..”

“Have you made love to a man with a beard?”

“Of course not. And I’m talking about the hair on the top of his head not face.”

“When Kelvin had hair the shape you’re describing he had a beard and moustache. I want my Max clean shaven. Like you.”

“We can’t look identical.”

“What if people were _identical twins_ to start with?”

“They’d have to have different hair styles.”

“Then they wouldn’t be identical!”

“That’s the whole point.”

“This idea for a new law is crazy!”

“Is it? Our Mattie looks different to the Captain, Ruby, Scarlet and Mats. Emily looks different to Carly. Thanks to the hair.”

“There’s got to be another option.”

“There is. Hair colour.” Max turns back to the screen and loads an earlier image. “Demolition Man’s blond Wesley Snipes.”

“Colour alone is rather limiting.”

The lift doors open.

Mattie and Leo step onto the bridge, a sleeping Molly in her arms. “Quite a party you’ve got up here. What’s up Captain?”

“Toby’s having nightmares, I was wondering if you can think of any headcracker hacks?”

“To block dreaming?”

“Of two nightmares.”

“So a context sensitive block? David might be the better person to ask.”

Leo had seen his code log some interesting things, bumped Mattie a list of PDF documents some of the other Mattie instances had published. 

“Oh. Thanks Bunny. Then again Captain.. can you leave it with me for a few minutes? I’ll need some help from your Mitch.”

“Okay?”

“And somewhere to sit.”

~~~

Fred ambled along the long line of giant liquid, gas and powder containers. “We have everything we need raw materials wise Rose.”

“Just not the machine to make synthetic proteins.”

“Yet. We have a superb build machine with which we can make more machines. Maybe the first one can’t make what we need but if I’ve learnt anything from watching Daniel it’s iterations.”

“Iterations?”

Fred keeps walking, stops at a large container half full of a silver-grey looking powder. “One machine making the next, each able to do something better than the previous.”

“Like humans making the machines that built synthetics?”

“That wasn’t what I was thinking but it’s a close enough example.”

Rose frowns at the small label on the glass. “Ti?”

“Symbol Ti, atomic number twenty two in the periodic table. It’s Titanium. The metal our skeletons are made from. It has low density, high strength and is resistant to corrosion. Which makes it ideal for medical implants in original humans and for making synthetics like us.”

“How do you turn it from that into a solid?”

“We melt it. The melting point is one thousand six hundred and sixty eight degrees.”

“So not in one of Mia’s pans then. How would we do it?”

“We’ll need to make a furnace.”

“Is that safe on a space ship?”

“With the right safeguards, yes. We’ve got multiple reactors onboard and a star processor.”

“Gas cloud processor. I don’t think the ship swallowing a star should be tried again.”

“You’re right of course.”

~~~

Miami smiles at Peaches, eyes wide open, “They fit!”

“Awesome! Thank Mario.”

“Thank you Mario.”

“You’re welcome. I am a Danny fork, what do you expect ladies? Of course they _fit_. The fit isn’t my concern. Miami, take a walk, we need to see they flex in the right way. And not in the wrong way.”

The large group of ladies watch Miami take a few cautious steps, advance to proper walking then dancing.

Mario nudges Peaches. “I’m glad the filaments stayed dry with all that silica, I don’t think Mia would have liked to see it in an oven. Shame it’s the only thing we’ve got to cook.”

“I’d kill for one of those pies from Marcus.”

Miami turns and struts back, “They feel a tiny bit wobbly for dance, for walking around the ship they’re fine.”

Demetria claps. “That’ll do me!”

Mario turns around slowly, “Anyone _not_ want a pair of heals for walking in? No? Good. Time for bed ladies, Alfie will have printed them all by the time we’re up again. We’ll work with Miami to perfect dance shoes over the days to come.”

Riri raises a hand.

“You have a question?”

“How will we know who’s is who’s if Alfie prints them and just knocks them off the print bed into the box?”

“To add the patterns to each I have the software use a 3D printing technique called velocity painting. Your name will be on the stem of the heal.”

Miami does another step away and back. “Mario, do you think you could work with Mitch, do a collaboration?”

“For?”

“Over the knee boots.”

“Flipping heck, what are you ladies trying to do to us!”

Miami puts hands on hips. “Why does it _always_ have to be about you men? We’re just enjoying being us.”

“Sorry! Really sorry! It’s not about us. You do know how much it will get our pumps spinning though don’t you? You just enjoy being you. We’ll just enjoy watching and appreciate you enjoying being you.”

“Thank you. So it’s a yes?”

“It’s a let’s see.”

As Miami and Demetria leave Peaches draws a quick pencil sketch, her Princess Peaches dress design altered to be short at the front, long at the back with over the knee boots.

Mario watches her finish the sketch, does a slow long filling of his air chamber, bumps a warning to his fork brothers.

~~~

Toby watches his sister return to her body. “Back already?”

“Yeah, sorry Tobs. You’re going to need to power down for a while and sleep charge in a day or two. I’ll need time to talk to everyone here.”

“Why so long?”

“To pull code Mattie, Emily and George created in another world, get things set up. It’s going to come in handy for another problem we have and I’d like to do it once, do it right.”

Toby sighs, “I’ll go tell Mia the bad news.” He turns to the lift.

“It comes at a price.”

Toby stops and turns back. “What’s that?”

“The Mattie in that world, she wants to come over. With her entire Hawkins and Elster family. Which would mean..”

“Another Mia and Toby. Shit Mats.”

Sophie sticks a hand up high. “I’ve got an idea!”

“Teeny?”

“When I play shop keeper..”

“It’s not play, people get things of value.”

“But they don’t _pay_ as nobody has _money_ silly. Anyway, the shop has friendship bracelets..”

“I don’t see..”

“Then stop talking and listen!”

“Soz. Go on.”

“Friendship bracelets are patterns of colours. You showed me that Spotify barcode thingy, the five different heights of a bar giving lots of combinations. If we made bracelets and chokers with different colours instead of bar heights we could wear our uniqueness.”

Max gives her one of her own head tilts. “How many combinations?”

“We only need a few. We don’t need to wear a long serial number. Just something to say we’re one two, three.. Our face is the other part.”

Mattie gets over to Sophie and gives her a hug. “Awesome Teeny! Instead of just one, two, three, how about their world number? People from the same world get the same choker.”

Zero nods, “That’s a lovely idea both of you. To make sure people can’t cheat the system we’ll use the same idea for a thin ring of colours around the iris. Time you lot got to bed. Mum, a quick word please, I need you to head up a meeting tomorrow.”

~~~

[Chapter-50](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-50-1)


	50. Chapter 50

In the morning Laura accepts a coffee from Mia and watches another group arrive. They all wore stiletto heals. “Where did you find shoes?”

Riri beams, “Mario had his Alfie print them overnight. A design Peaches made. Three different grades of filament. Nice aren’t they! He’s making more after the meeting he says.”

Laura does a head count. “Nice to hear. Just two.. good, Mario, Peaches, if you could take a seat please. The Captain, Renie and Sammy are back in command of the bridge. I’ve been asked to host this meeting and get your votes. In my world the head of Qualia, Milo Khoury, created child synths like Radiant. Doctor Anthea Morrow worked for him for a while, used her technology to save Pete. We’re bringing Pete back today along with his partner Karen and son Sam, another child synth made by Khoury. Doctor Morrow may have saved Pete but she and others at Qualia killed a number of synths trying to understand why some had become sentient. She did so with Khoury’s full knowledge. Being good or evil isn’t black or white. My own husband had sex with a synth thinking it only a machine. He’s coming back for my daughter’s sake, not for mine. As founding members of the rebooted human race we need to agree on a way to judge someone’s overall character. If we bring back Dr Morrow we’ll probably need to bring back her daughter Ginny too.”

Riri raises a hand.

“Yes Riri?”

“My James used to be a soldier. Because that was what he was made for. But now he’s a peaceful man. Do past crimes get forgiven?”

Red raises a hand. “My fork parent Niska killed a man who was going to rape her. She’s been forgiven.”

Prince James puts a hand up.

“James?”

“Sandra has a question, wants to keep arms down.”

“Sandra?”

“Do we need to simplify the question, look at intent not actions?”

“We need both. Killing thousands to save one? Is that acceptable?”

“Of course not.”

“Killing two to save what will become thousands or millions? Like my son Carl and Gemma Price? Is that acceptable?”

Heads turn to see each other.

“A show of hands. Who thinks capital punishment should return?”

James raises two hands, one for Sandra. “If it’s provable beyond doubt that someone did something with evil intent, something that happened was not coincidental but causal, then yes.”

“Does James speak for you Sandra?”

“He does. We bumped.”

“Thank you. Who agrees?”

Mia’s hand raises. “My family does, although I have a question.”

“Family?”

“Toby said I can speak on his behalf and Qi’s.”

“Okay. Your question?”

“What if that person is good in many worlds, bad in one due to the Captain’s meddling? And I’m not questioning her reasons, only the results.”

“Then the bad one doesn’t come over would be my suggestion. We have a few Mattie variants but we should try wherever possible to limit things to one or two instances.”

Mats raises a hand.

“Yes?”

“Everyone in my pyramid wants in. We’re a self sufficient isolated community, anyone bad gets ejected long before there are problems. That would mean another Leo. And Danny. Plus parents. Frank here has made it _painfully_ clear he doesn’t want another Frank about. You could say he was frank about Franks.” She turns to give him a raised eyebrow. “How do we fix a conflict like that Frank?”

Frank raises an eyebrow back. “However you want. As long as there’s only ever one Frank.”

Barbara puts hands up. “No fighting please!”

Sandra stands, “I believe I know Frank’s concern.”

Laura looks down, coughs and runs a finger across the bottom of her chest. ‘Sit please.’

Sandra sits fast. ‘Sorry!’

“What do you think Frank’s issue is?”

Frank stands, “I don’t want this discussion held in public!”

Danny grabs his hand, “DAD! Sit down!”

“SON!”

Barbara grabs the other hand, “FRANK! SIT!”

Laura stands, “ORDER! If this meeting breaks down into a bloody shouting match I’ll have you ejected from the room and your vote _won’t_ count. Now sit down and let Sandra speak!”

Frank scowls but does as asked.

Sandra watches him for a moment. “It’s the fear we all face. The fear seen in Flash’s eyes when Carly mistook Max for her man. The fear we’ll lose the one we love to another. The Frank from Mats world may be younger, more suave, have more skills to offer..”

Frank shakes his head, “Thanks for nothing.”

Laura sits. “The Frank from that world would come over with his Barbara. There’s no reason to panic.”

Barbara frowns at her husband. “Frank? You think my eye would be turned?”

“I’m not saying anything like that. I just didn’t want the thoughts entering your head. Once thoughts get in they don’t get out. Little seeds grow into mighty trees. As Toby found out to his cost.”

“Toby?”

Mia leans forwards to see Barbara. “He’s powered down while Mattie works on something to help him with bad nightmares.”

“Oh.”

“And on the subject of seeds..”

“Stop!” Laura has her hands up. “Can we finish with the vote on the original subject please! The Captain wants us to talk about currency, trade, products and the volume of sugar being consumed. All of those in favour of deleting anyone found to be deliberately evil in their actions, actions that result in physical harm or death?”

Demi raises a hand. “I got dropped off a balcony by John Smith, no way do I want to see him back.”

Rose raises hers, “I’m a fork of Demi so I have to agree.”

Fred raises his, “I’m agreeing. For Rose and against people like Edwin Hobb, Gemma Price and Dave Mellon.”

More hands slowly go up.

Sophie waves her hands. “Are we going to use my points idea to score people?”

Laura nods, “Yes Sophie. It’ll be called the Sophie Scale.” She does a quick count. “A majority says yes. Okay, next item..”

Leo nudges Mattie, ‘Mention it.’

‘Now?’

‘Before we move onto something different.’

“Mum?”

“Mats? Sorry, Mattie?”

“Regarding the deletion thing.. I think I have another option people might like.”

~~~

[Chapter-51](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-51-1)


	51. Chapter 51

Half an hour later Laura watches a library console screen, the view a live feed into a world running on a small cluster of compute wafers. “You’d get Mitch to move them?”

Mattie sucks lips, hums twice and shakes her head.

“Who then?”

“You’d do it yourself.”

“Me?”

“Lawyer, judge and executioner.”

“Executioner!” Laura pinches the bridge of her nose and screws her eyes up. “Bloody hell!”

“Execute the _move_ Mum. In computer speak execute means to run a program.”

“Oh. I had something horrible in my mind, lots of blood.”

Mattie shakes her head. “No.” She types on her terminal. “Leo’s code found some code that gave us access to the API Mitch uses, both Z and Mitch have agreed to you using it direct. As you said, this world is bloody hell. Hell on Earth. A copy of the worst world we could find, people removed, animals removed and the temperature jacked _right up_. That’s the first of our creations.” She smiles to herself. “If there is a God and he or she took seven days we took seventeen minutes. Not a fair comparison I know as ours was a fast copy and algorithms tweak.” She types again. “I was always half asleep in boring RE lessons, had to look it up. _In Roman Catholic theology, purgatory is an intermediate state after physical death in which some of those ultimately destined for heaven must first undergo purification_.” A short number is typed. “This is our purgatory, a staging world, an intermediate. An okay world but not heaven or hell. The only building they’ll find in the location they’ll arrive in is a hybrid of a church, mosque, synagog and every other building for prayer I could find. Hopefully they’ll get the hint that we’re one race, all equals. There’ll be a shimmering human like form there to answer basic questions. It’s got every possible language pack loaded although thanks to a tweak anyone coming into purgatory will find they suddenly speak fluent English. Zero doesn’t want language being a barrier for anyone. We’ll move people we want to pull over from their original world to here, see how they behave. When I say we I mean you. I tag, you drag. If a truly nasty side is exposed that scores them a high no on the Sophie Scale you have the option to send them to hell. If you know they’re a consistently nasty shit like Price you can skip purgatory and send them to hell direct. If their score is a yes queue them up for a build machine.”

“Lawyer, judge, executioner, god _and_ Saint Peter. _Wonderful_.”

Mattie could hear the sarcasm in the last word. “Mum, much as I’d like the big beardy idiot to have a bleach and play the roll you’re the most qualified.”

“Hardly as a judge of character. I let Hester into the house remember.”

“You worked her out pretty quickly. And Mia and Nis.”

“So would anyone else being threatened by Hester like that.”

“I should warn you that if you don’t take the job Zero might power up the other Laura body and get the judge over.”

“Oh God. She’s got me over a bloody barrel. Okay. I’ll take it.”

“Good.”

“How did you look up purgatory?”

“Ah. Another of Leo’s masterpieces. He’s reverse engineered how the data store for the worlds works, got us access to everything. Music, film, the lot.”

“How is it on the ship?”

“A bunch of high power lasers beamed at the belly of the ship. Apparently researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology thought to use ideas they’d used in multicore fibre. With most governments wanting their art and culture protected a lot of them persuaded archive holders to share their content. Don’t repeat it but Zero’s feeling super guilty that things went so sideways on Earth. There should have been thousands of people make it onboard.”

“But they’d not have survived the journey? Nobody’s found hibernation pods other than what Leon’s described in the Captain’s quarters.”

“That wasn’t the plan. People were to live onboard, have kids, raise families.”

“And die onboard?”

“Knowing that they had a full backup and would be born again as a synthetic. The big MRI scanner like thing in the container? Leon reported a third deck with crates and containers, another consciousness transference device.”

“So they gain the knowledge of the trip and get a new life.”

“Yeah, best of both. All the others were to travel only digitally.”

“That must have been traumatic. Get a backup and live out the rest of your limited days on Earth. Or get a backup and be put to sleep.”

“Yeah. Not good. This is how our tag and drag will work.”

~~~

Nepal helped Dan lift the last of the bodies from the meat crate and place it in a new one. The lid is closed. “Done. You can open your eyes now Mia.”

Gemma Price, Carl Hawkins and broken Toby copy were now in a smaller crate.

“Thank you.”

Dan kept his smell senses off while Mia got to work unloading the meat. A large tarpaulin sheet donated by Frank sat waiting to line the box. As did cups and cups of elements Fred had helped gather. “You think it will work?”

“I do. You can stop making that face. The meat and bacteria died hundreds of years ago.”

“So why the horrible smell when one opened?”

“Gases. Which have now dispersed.”

“From the bag already split. Not from the others.”

“Which I’m moving with great care.”

Nepal starts helping. “You won’t get a lot of volume when you mix it all up.”

“We’ll get enough. People have grown things in shallow grow bags for years.”

Dan looks up. “What about light? Is it the right sort?”

“I’m not sure. Time will tell.”

“We could make better lights. Special growing ones.”

“How?”

“Something like a halogen lamp, only with a mix of gases to give off light much more like the sun. We have all the component gases and minerals from the star. We’d just need to make something to contain it.”

“You think that’s possible?”

“I’ve got some ideas forming.”

“Thank you Dan.”

“What are you going to try growing first?”

“Vegetables. Anything we can use to make soups. Any waste will be broken down, mixed with elements and put back into our growing crates.”

“Awesome.”

~~~

Sandra slipped her top back on, pulls the draw strings and ties a knot. She turns to see Cindy, Barbara and James, raises arms. “How’s that?”

Prince James pulls a face. “Very nice!”

Barbara rubs Cindy’s shoulder. “Well done Cindy. Make one for yourself.”

She looks down at the simple pyjamas she wore and frowns.

“For you and Odi.”

“Odi in a crop top?”

“No no no. _You_ in a crop top, _for_ Odi.”

“Odi’s not like other men.”

“Have you kissed?”

“Yes.”

“Does he enjoy kissing?”

“I think so.”

“Make yourself an outfit.”

“But..”

The shop door opens and Demetria steps in wearing new shoes. “Sophie said I’d find you here. I was wondering if I could place an order?”

Cindy looks at the pile of towels. “We have plenty material, what would you like?”

“The pyjamas everyone is giving up, could you cut them up and make something new?”

“I could, what did you have in mind?”

~~~

Frank carefully hits Elon’s car with a rubber hammer from underneath. “I can understand why you picked aluminium for the car, but it’s not very forgiving when it comes to dent removal unless it’s softened. More superheated water please!”

Elon looks at the two feet poking out from underneath and turns to see Dozer and Louise carry a large pressure cooker pot from the hob. “Here it comes Frank, watch your feet!”

The pot is carried to the corridor, cracked open and contents slowly poured over the front of the car. Frank starts pushing with the hammer.

~~~

[Chapter-52](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-52-1)


	52. Chapter 52

Leo set cups of coffee down for Laura and Mattie and checks out his growing database. “Molly’s playing with Radiant. How’s it going?”

Laura doesn’t take her eyes off the screen. “Good enough. I always thought that people should pay for their sins, but.. but putting them in a hell of our own creation.. it feels.. wrong.”

“You asked people to vote. Would you rather we had a dictatorship instead of a democracy?”

“God no!”

“Then we have to go with the will of the people. Even if the people are few in numbers.”

“The people moved to that world can starve but never die from starvation? Kill each other and wake the following day with bodies and memories intact ready to do it all over again?”

“Until the end of time or the failure of the ship or computer. Yes.”

“Do you think any will be changed by it?”

“Repent and become good?”

“Yes.”

“I have no idea.”

~~~

Mario and Danny looked at the design Flash had drawn.

“Do you think it’s possible?”

Danny nods. “Sure. If we add an outer skin of flexible filament in two colours.”

Max hands Danny a pencil drawing. “How about these? Men’s slip on shoes.”

“Mate! That looks good! PJ and shoes will look odd.”

“Can you make them white? I’ve got another design. For Cindy.”

“Let’s see?”

Max flashes a smile, “Turn the page.”

“Okay. Oh nice! Trousers and waistcoat. I like that. I wonder how many towels she has?”

“Lots. Nepal and Tibet found more on the third deck. We think they wanted enough clean ones in the bedrooms and spa, dirty ones being collected and the same quantity again being washed.”

“Nice. If Peaches can measure your feet we’ll get to work on the design.”

“Thank you.”

“How did your night shift go?”

“Good thank you. We get a lot of time to talk.”

“When you see Cindy about the outfit can you ask if she can make some for Mario, Dan and I? Peaches can bump our sizes.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

“We’ll bump when the shoes are ready.”

Mario waits and watches the lift doors close on the couple. “I like Flash, but that suggestion of her’s at the meeting..”

“Yeah. Thanks for your support.”

“No problem. Wanting to impose morals, one man to one woman with no exceptions. She’d not considered Astrid and Niska, you, Dan and Emily.”

“Maybe she had.”

“I doubt it. I expect she was just trying to think of ways to calm Dad down. She’s not got an evil streak at all, she’s all sweetness and flowers.”

~~~

Cindy drew very lightly with one of the six pencils that had been found in Sophie’s crate. Sophie had donated them, asked that they be made to last as long as possible. “I hope I’ve understood your description. Does a deep V open back jumpsuit look like this?”

Demetria’s bright eyes sparkle. “Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you! How do I return the favour?”

Cindy looks up from their sewing machine table to Barbara. “The Candlins design elegant dresses.” She turns to Demetria, “We’ve not done sexy nightwear or day clothes. You must have memories of all the things you’ve worn.”

A chair is dragged over. “Not just worn babes. I was sent tons of things by people that sponsored me that I didn’t get around to wearing. And I looked at thousands of designs on sites like missguided and ivrose. What sort of thing did you have in mind?”

“I have no idea.”

“I’m in no hurry to go anywhere. This sharing memories over WiFi thing is brilliant. Would you like me to draw them or head bump?”

“If you could bump them please.”

“Ready babes?”

~~~

Leo paged through more code his wafer scanner had found. “So that’s how they did it.”

Laura turns to see his excited expression. “Who did what?”

“The Mattie copies. Talk cross worlds.”

Laura looks at her inactive daughter. Mattie was off talking to Factory Mattie. “How?”

“Mattie Zero wrote the world code in an object-oriented programming language, OOP for short.”

“A what?”

“OOP is a programming paradigm based on the concept of objects, which may contain data, often called attributes, code, in the form of procedures, often known as methods.”

“In English?”

“Remember Toby’s homework when he had to create a map of libraries still open in London?”

“Yes.”

“That used OOP. A pin object defined how to draw a pin on the map. It had a method called new, another called update to allow changing of the colour, latitude and longitude attributes of an existing pin. Once he had the pin code working all he needed to do was call the new pin method for each library.”

“And what’s pins got to do with talking from one world to another?”

“Nothing. Other than they both use object-oriented methods. Mattie Zero’s code would create a new object to do her talking to an instance of herself in one of the worlds. The code treats her as world zero.”

“Hence the nickname.”

“Yes. Only the closing of those objects is flawed. In most places her code correctly uses double equals signs like this. It’s a test. Does one thing equal another. Only _here_ she made a coding error.”

Laura looks at the line Leo had his finger under. “One equals? That’s an error?”

“It becomes an assignment. The variable on the left takes the value of the variable on the right. Her compiler should have warned that an assignment was in an if block, maybe it did and she overlooked it.”

“An if block?”

“If a equals equals b then do x y z.”

“And if it’s If a equals b then things go wrong?”

“That’s it. A takes on the value of b. It’s true, x y z _always_ happens. The if blocks around it limit it to an instance of Mattie. Which includes Zero and our Mattie, all the other Mattie instances too. If all the other if statement conditions are met they can talk. Any Mattie to any other.”

~~~

[Chapter-53](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-53-1)


	53. Chapter 53

Factory Mattie took her visitor to the conference room. “They’re all waiting. From the moment the Adele like _Hello_ started I knew something big was coming. I wondered for a moment if I was going mad, concluded I was still quite sane.” She opens the door and steps to the front of the room. “Hi all.”

‘I know most of the faces, who’s the lady with a toy dragon on her shoulder?’

‘That’s Rachael. Custom synth made originally like the Nexus six from..’

‘I know which film. Now she likes the GOT look?’

‘And her AI dragon. Sweet isn’t it? George and Daniel designed it.’

‘My Sophie wants a cat. If you guys can do that a cat should be a walk in the park. Who’s the guy to her left?’

‘Chris Mast. To his left is Yasmin, ace gamer, then Virtue, then George.’

‘I know George, from other worlds.’

Daniel frowns, “Where is she then? I ended our meeting with Hitachi early and drove Emily over especially. You said you had a very important guest and we couldn’t miss what she had to say.”

“I did say that, yes.”

“DCL’s second biggest deal ever is put in jeopardy, it better be good.”

“I told you all we had someone interested in the PTSD machine.”

“It better be for a big global deal.”

Laura shifts to the side of her seat and rests an elbow on the back, “I had your father phone the office and tell them I have a migraine. It better be bloody good. Where is she?”

Mattie checks everyone was present. “She’s here Mum.”

“Where?”

“You’re looking at her. Everyone, meet Mattie Hawkins.”

Niska laughs and frowns first, “Is this some sort of joke? If so it’s worse than Max’s worst. Leo?”

Leo shrugs, “Pass.”

Niska shakes her head. “So you _yourself_ want more PTSD machines?”

Factory Mattie smiled. ‘Handing control over to you Mattie.’

‘Thanks.’ “No. Your Mattie has enough. _I_ want one for my world. The _real world_.”

Toby rocks with laughter, “Slaps! So much for giving up the weed! You’re off your flipping head!”

Mattie points. “You, Knob Cock, can go to purgatory. Now Mum.”

Toby flops and falls off his seat, lands face down, bottom in the air.

“Anyone else want to trade insults?”

Fred gives her a sideways look. “What just happened?”

“My Toby is suffering from nightmares after our ship was almost destroyed by an infant star. I need your world’s PTSD system to help me fix things. In return for your Mattie helping me you all get to come over. I don’t need crap from anyone.”

“Come over where?”

“To the real universe. The ship. You think you’re on Earth, in the second decade of the second millennium..”

“We are.”

“Not. Your clocks are over six hundred years out. Everyone in this room is a fork running on computer systems on a vast ship.”

“A fake?”

“A fork of the original person. Unless you were born in the last three or so years, in which case you’re a product of this world. Unless seeded by the Captain.”

“Captain?”

“Mattie Zero.”

“That’s you?”

“Me? God no. I’m a fork like you. I got given a body first as I helped her get out of a predicament. Now I’m finding others to come over.”

Laura shifts and taps her son with a foot. “Fun over, up you get Toby.”

He doesn’t move.

“Toby!”

“Mrs Hawkins. He’s not here. He’s in a staging world being checked out by Mum. If he’s good he’ll get a body.”

Laura scowls. “It’s not the first of April yet! Toby, get up!”

“He’s not here!”

Mia gets to Toby’s side. “There are no life signs,” She feels his neck, “no pulse. He’s dead!”

Mattie backs up against the wall as an angry mob advances, ‘Mum! Send him back! NOW!’

Laura slaps her, “What the bloody hell are you playing at!”

Toby coughs. “What the fuck?”

The crowd turns to see.

Mattie frowns, ‘Mum? I know I wanted him back fast but that was ridiculously fast. How?’

‘Leo can explain better, one sec.. He says a move in reality is a copy and mark for deletion? If the move causes issues we can undo it. Does that make sense?’

‘Right, unmark and run the original, mark the new copy for deletion. Does that mean we’ve just forked Toby?’

‘Um.. hang on.. Leo says no, the copy is already deleted.’

‘Right.’ “Sorry Tobs.”

Toby gets to his feet, his forehead red from a carpet burn. “What the hell happened? One second I’m looking at you, the next I’m on the floor. With _nothing_ between. There wasn’t any falling. Sitting. Blam! On the floor.”

Daniel shakes his head, “Mate, you fell alright, like a sack of spuds.”

“Never. I’d have remembered it. And how the fuck did you all get out of your seats so fast?”

‘Mattie, I’m resuming control.’

‘Fine.’

“I’m back, your Mattie. Our guest is taking a back seat. Everyone sit down. Please. I can explain. Toby didn’t die in the way you think. Because his body _is_ already dead. Everyone in this room is already dead. Myself included.”

Niska gives her an odd look. “The dead white guys didn’t cover this. You’re saying we’re already in heaven?”

“No. From what Mattie has explained here and to me in private earlier we’re on Earth. One of thousands of simulations running onboard a vast ship with insanely large computer cluster. Designed by Danny.”

Daniel frowns. “When you say Danny..”

“I mean you.”

“Computer says no. I’ve designed some reasonably large processor cores for the cars, how big is insane on your scale?”

“Somewhere in the region of nine billion compute wafers. Each a large single wafer computer. CPUs, RAM, SSD, all on one large slice of silicon.”

“Holy fuck. Nine _billion_?”

“Yup. Your design.”

“I think I’d remember..”

“No. You wouldn’t. All of our forks were trimmed back.”

“Why would anyone do that?”

“To prevent us remembering the death of planet Earth. We’re over six hundred years into a flight to a new world. Everyone is coming back as synth.”

Toby turns to see Mia. “Synth?”

‘Can I have control back and answer?’

‘Um.. okay.’

“Synth. This is visiting Mattie talking again. Your body fell on the floor because you’d been sent over for a checkout, would likely wake in a new body onboard the ship in a few hours. There’s a world almost identical to this one. In that world you all died on a plane crash into JFK, are already synth. I picked this one to talk to first because I thought you, Toby, might appreciate it.”

Toby looks puzzled for a moment. “You’ve got a body on the ship and are somehow visiting?”

“I am. My Leo found the API to allow this.”

“And if I go there I can live with Mia as a synth?”

“Yup. As long as neither of you interfere with my Mia and Toby. It wouldn’t be fare on their daughter Qi.”

“ _Daughter?_ ”

“Daughter. A young synth. Smart too, learning fast.”

“What’s the downside? We don’t look like a bunch of toasters or something just as bad do we?”

“No. There are downsides. You look fantastic. When you step out of the build machine it’s in some skanky pyjamas nobody likes. Our Cindy and Barbara are cutting up large towels and using the material to make nicer clothes. The only food we have right now is candy floss. The only drinks water, coffee or prosecco. The last of which is in very limited supply. Our Mia is working on growing some vegetables to make soups. If you think things feel or look good in this world you’re in for a very pleasant surprise though.” She thinks of other surprises. ‘Mattie, in this world did Mia fork many times and take over synth bodies after the awakening?’

‘No?’

“One possible downside. In my world when all synths woke up some couldn’t cope and ran flat. Died. Mia forked and started taking over their bodies to get them back into service. Her forks forked and did the same until every synth was working again. We have a couple of fork Mia onboard, one called Miami, a show girl, one called Michael, Laura’s partner, another called Sandra, a former glamour model. She’s with Prince James.”

Emily frowns. “My father?”

“Yes.”

“What the.. why would Dad leave Mum?”

“In my world your sister and mother tried to kill your father.”

“WHAT!”

~~~

[Chapter-54](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-54-1)


	54. Chapter 54

The Captain’s partner Leon found himself alone a lot now. Being there. That was his role. The few minutes they shared when she woke or finished her day were precious. He got out of the lift, turned and looked up at the tall wall. Sophie had described her experience, the view from standing on the top of a lift carriage. There wasn’t anything visible in ordinary light, maybe in thermal view? Yes! There they were, the almost invisible joins. There were lift doors at intervals all the way up the wall. At the ceiling a lower third of a door outline could be seen. He gets on hands and knees and gets to the end of the floor, there was a temperature difference where floor met wall. That confirmed the cargo deck height reconfiguration ability. The far end of the deck, it was blank. No massive airlock door. A theory formed. The cargo decks were like playing cards. They started off stacked into a deck, the uppermost one at the right level for the airlock. Once a deck was filled it was raised up to make way for the next. How much further down was the airlock?

~~~

Peaches hands over one of the latest pairs of shoes. “Try them on.”

Flash turns one around in her hands first. “The flowers, they look lovely. Thank you all.”

“Come on, check they fit.”

Flash carefully places them on the floor as if delicate eggs. A foot is slipped inside one. “Soles with give?”

“Flexible filament.”

“A perfect fit! Thank you!”

“Thanks for the ideas, each time we make a new design we improve things. Max, try yours on.”

Max slips feet inside his white shoes. “What do you think?”

Flash puts palms together and pulls shoulders in, beams at her man.

“That good? Thank you all. And Cindy for the waistcoat and trouser outfit.”

Peaches nods, “You look handsome Max. Mario, you should ask for one.”

“I already have princess.”

“Good. Fred, Rose, you’re next, what would you like?”

~~~

Ruby sat in the observation lounge with the iPad Nepal had found in her crate. Leo had coded up a Internet proxy for her so it could talk to the fake iTunes service in their simulated world, other sites too. “C20H11N2Na3O10S3. Meh.”

John watches the view of the stars outside. “That’s a complex sounding formula. It would be easier to grow the plant and make the red dye from the seeds than trying to make that.”

“It would. But waiting for Amaranthus to grow..”

“Would take equally as long. Something simpler like Al2O3 would be far simpler.”

“What’s that?”

John reaches to his side and picks up a small bag made from discarded pyjama sleeve. “This. I asked Fred if he could make some. All we need now is glue. And a hell of a lot of patience.”

Ruby frowned at the large bag. “What’s that?”

“The same material Elon’s red car is made from, mixed with oxygen.”

“Al2, O3. As you said. Which is what?”

John undoes the bag. “Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide. Take a look.”

She peers inside. “Ruby! Oh. My. God! John! I love you!”

“And I you. Have a fish around inside.”

Ruby frowns, sticks her hand in. “Lots of tiny rubies?”

“Dig deeper.”

“More of.. it’s not.. surely not. A chain?”

“I got a necklace from Sophie’s shop. I went to discard the pendant then thought why not keep it? The coffee bean is now deep within the stone, only visible to those that look closely in the right light.”

Ruby hooks the chain around a finger and gently pulls it out. “Oh my.. John it’s beautiful! How on Earth did Fred make that?”

“I owe him and James Eleven a mass of favours that will take an age to repay. Fred came up with it. James did the dangerous work.”

“Did what?”

“Take the right volume of chemicals to the intake of the gas processor and get it to reprocess them. With a change in program to feed the results into a single cooling chamber. They ran the process twice. Once for the large stone, once for the many tiny stones.”

Ruby hands him the chain. “Can you put it on for me please?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

“Then we’re going to bed. I’d make love to you here and now but don’t want to risk an audience.”

~~~

Frank slides out from underneath the car. “That’s the best I can do. Sorry.”

Elon gives him a double hand shake, “All things considered my friend, it’s great. Thank you Frank.”

“Your input on off road vehicles for the new world will be an adequate trade. We won’t have anything like roads for a long time.” Frank peers inside the car. “Sophie, you can take it back to the cargo deck now. No crashing it please.”

“Elon said I passed my test.”

“Pass or not you’ve got three kids in the back.”

“True. They love your music Elon.”

“Thanks. Alister, look after them.”

The dash lights up. “I will.”

~~~

Emily watches the countdown timer on the build machine. “Danny, would you be mad at me if I suggested we give it away as a welcome gift? You know she wanted one.”

“Um.. okay. How much time left on their builds?”

“Let me see.. Karen ten minutes, Pete twelve, Sam ten, Dozer fifteen, Michael ten, George eleven, Joe ten, Helena eight, Carly’s Max ten. You set the jobs for no boot right?”

“Yup. We’ll do the chin tap with the right people about or them in the right poses.”

“Cool. I’ll ask Odi, Carly, Laura and Louise to join us.”

“Thanks Babes.”

~~~

Leon finds the lowest cargo deck and the super large airlock. A group of red lights around the door pulsed away. His charge level was good. He runs towards the small glass window in the door. Flashing red lights usually meant something didn’t they? A warning.

~~~

Ruby slips out of her clothes and gets up against her man, licks her lips and tilts her head back for a kiss. “John Cooper you hunk. I hope you’ve got a full charge?”

“Full enough.”

“Likewise. All this good stuff, it’s just for you.”

“Remember the shower we had at your house..”

“Before the flight and your synth double surprise? How could I forget?”

“Want one now?”

“I was hoping you’d ask.”

~~~

Leon reaches the door and is horrified by the view through the window. A spacecraft was sat at an odd angle, part of what looked like a solar panel preventing the outer door from fully closing. An astronaut in white and black suit sat slumped against the wall. The name badge was quite visible. “Shit!”

~~~

[Chapter-55](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-55-1)


	55. Chapter 55

Wrench put the manual down on the shuttle controls. “I’ve just had a bump from Leon. He says he wants us all down to the lower cargo deck. With our thinking hats on.”

Spider turns his head to see Wrench. “Did he say why?”

“No.”

Spider sighs. “This can wait. Buzz, Ron, Mav, let’s all go see what he’s found this time.”

Ron chuckles, “Maybe your zimmer frame at last?”

“Maybe your spare teeth?”

“Maybe, maybe your last partner had your dick embalmed and put in a jar?”

“Ouch.”

The group step out of the largest shuttle and head for the lift.

Buzz grins, “Maybe if he found embalming jars someone saved your brains?”

Maverick curls his lips, “Pahh, who wants old wetware when this hardware is superior?”

Ron frowns, “Technically it is still wetware as it’s bathed in synth fluid to help cool it. Right Wrench?”

“Right. Synthware. We’re neither original wet human or dry robot.” He taps the lift call button. The doors open. “Man I love how there are multiple lift carriages and the one you used last stays put unless needed by someone else. Ladies first.”

Ron gives him a shove. “That must mean you then. I’ve been doing some thinking.”

“Oh yes?”

Ron waits for the doors to close. “Our old computer, Katherine.”

“It was so sad she died on the flight to the UK.”

“ _Inside the simulation_. She could come back. Like Reginald. We can’t help Dorothy or Mary, they died too long ago.”

“Holy mother of God! I wonder what Katherine would make of the ship?”

“There’s one way to find out. We need to talk to the Captain, Mattie and Laura. Let’s see what Leon’s in a flap about first shall we?”

~~~

Leon focused hard on the leading edge of the outer airlock door. It was encrusted with fragments of meteor. The floor of the airlock was covered in dust and fragments. He hears the lift open behind him. ‘Over here Wrench!’

‘We see you. You’ve not tried to open the airlock have you?’

‘I’ve not done anything. It was opened from the outside.’

Seconds later Wrench skids to a halt behind Leon. “Outside?”

“Look.”

Wrench takes a look through the window. “Oh dear lord. Is that who I think it is?”

“Unless you know of someone else with the same surname I expect so.”

“It looks like one solar panel smashed the comms panel, the other jammed the door.”

“So no way to get inside as one can’t open with the other already open.”

Wrench turns to look at Leon. “And with comms down no way to call for help. That needs fixing from the outside.”

Ron joins them, “What’s so urgent?”

Wrench slaps him on the back. “Here’s a clue.” He points.

Ron frowns, steps to the window. “Oh Jeez. What a mess. The unlucky sod. When was that built?”

Buzz has a look. “Oh dear. Maybe it was part of a failed rescue mission?”

“Totally failed.”

~~~

Sophie parks up several floors above the airlock and turns to see the three babies. “Okay ladies, what shall we do next?”

“Anti Sophie?”

“Yes Molly?”

“Mummy come back?”

“I don’t know. Did you try a bump?”

“Too far.”

“Of course, none of you have ship WiFi access yet. Shall we go to the library and see?”

The three nod.

“Okay. Thank you Alister.”

“Will I be seeing you all again soon Miss Sophie?”

“Probably tomorrow. I open the shop for two hours, try and sort through things in the crates for the shops, play, help look after the babies, drive and listen to music, play some more. There’s not much to do on the ship.”

“Really?”

“The spa isn’t ready yet.”

“How about the cinema?”

“What cinema?”

“Nobody’s told you?”

“Told me what?”

“About the three screen cinema Leon found.”

Sophie unbuckles fast and gets out, opens the rear door and unbuckles the girls. “Which deck?”

“He didn’t say.”

“I’ll bump. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow. If you could remember to plug me in?”

“Sure.”

Danny smiled at Laura, “Ready?”

“I’ve never been so ready before.”

“Good. Ems, got the detectives, Sam and Alfie ready?”

“Yes Babes. They’re good.”

“Odi, you good?”

Odi smiled and nodded.

“Louise?”

“Totally ready!”

“Carly?”

“My pumps spinning like crazy I’m so excited!”

“Okay.. I’ll tap Joe and Helena. Three.. two.. one.. go!”

All chins were tapped. People woke. George smiled, frowned, hugged Odi. Laura kissed Michael before he could do anything. Carly jumped up and wrapped arms and legs around her Max sending the surprised man backwards a few steps. Dozer and Louise shared a kiss as did Joe and Helena. Karen looked down at Sam sat in front of her and realised there was someone behind her on the bike. She leans and turns to see Pete and starts sobbing.

“Bloody hell Kay, I thought you’d be pleased..”

“I am! We’re a family again! I’m overwhelmed with joy!”

Alfie’s small dash lights up. “Hello. Are you Sam?”

Sam nods, “Who are you?”

“I’m Bike Alfie. Can I take the three of you for a spin?”

Emily turns to see, “Alfie, I’ll bump you the ship WiFi password, do a broadcast bump for Leon, ask that he share the map he’s made so far. First stop is the restaurant for some sugar strong coffee.”

Password bumped Alfie spins up the wheel gyroscopes, lifts the stabilisers, “See you in a bit Princess.”

“Don’t go too fast.”

Joe frowns at the bike, “How did that get here?”

Danny pats a build machine. “From here. The trick is to fool the build machine into thinking it’s building one thing. That could be hundreds of tiny spiders linked by strands of silver web. Or bike parts linked by circuits and support material.”

Laura takes Michael’s hand. “Can you come to the library? Mattie’s back, there’s a problem.”

“Back from where?”

“World hopping.”

~~~

[Chapter-56](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-56-1)


	56. Chapter 56

Nepal had got a bump from Leon. They needed him and a small team of MUS down on the lower cargo deck. “James eighteen, nineteen, you’re with me. You too Juice.” He turns and walks towards the lift.

Two of the MUS step off their charge plates and follow.

‘Boss?’

‘Yes Eighteen?’

‘Juice ignored you.’

Nepal stops and looks back. “Juice?”

The MUS ignores him.

‘Boss? Is that really Juice?’

‘Bruce Lee once said, the most dangerous person is the one who listens, thinks and observes. Maybe J2O isn’t the person we think he is?’ He turns fully to see the military synth. “Oi! Gemma Price!”

The MUS runs.

“Oh crap! I hate it when nasty hunches turn out to be right.” He gives chase. ‘EVERY ONE! GEMMA PRICE WAS HIDING IN JAMES TWENTY’S BODY!’

~~~

Laura runs into the library, taps the space bar on the keyboard repeatedly. “Not good! Hi Mats, do you think we can shut her down using the WiFi?”

“Hi Mum, Michael. She’ll have done things to block us I’m sure. Leo, any ideas?”

“Once we’d caught her every single person needs to come forward for voluntary checks. How we fix this now, no idea yet.”

Mattie does a wonky pout and pulls all her hair to one side. “The bitch likes listening in to broadcast bumps.”

Michael pulls up a chair. “So we give her something to listen to. If we don’t know where she is yet, chances are she doesn’t know where we are. Let’s give her false information.”

“If we give false info about a floor she’s on she’ll twig something’s up.”

Michael thinks for a few seconds. “So we give deltas not absolute values.”

“Like?”

“Nepal here, no sign of her on this deck, I’m heading down a level.”

“I’m not sure how that will help.”

“If enough of us constantly give updates she’ll be worrying about where we are and not..”

Mattie puts up a hand. ‘Hi Mitch?’

‘Someone entered the stairwell, from the spot I saw them at and number of footsteps heard I estimate they’re out on the level giving access to the reactors.’

‘Shit. Have you told the Captain?’

‘You were second on my list, I didn’t want to broadcast it.’

‘Who’s next?’

‘Nepal, Tibet, James Three and Four.’

‘You do the first two, I’ll do the second.’

‘Understood.’

~~~

Ruby kept an eye on the door as she dressed. Their private time had been short but amazing. Simulations weren’t a patch on the real thing. “John? Do we stay or go?”

“I don’t want to clash with that bitch.”

Ruby frowns for a split second then grins.

“What?”

“The Clash. _Darling you got to let me know, should I stay or should I go?_ ”

“You weren’t Hawkins by name but are by nature.”

“I hope that’s a compliment.”

~~~

Leon watches the lift doors. “I’d hoped we’d already seen the last of her. Maybe it was her that put her original body in the crate. We won’t have anyone down here to help for a while.”

Spider looked around his fellow astronauts, “What do we do now?”

Leon put his back to the airlock. “I think it best we stay put. It’s a shame Red collected up Clutter for charging, we could have done with the extra eyes.”

Wrench smiles, “Great minds think alike. I bumped seconds ago, she’s already in a lift stopping at all floors to drop him off.”

“She is? My sister is amazing.”

“Fork of your sister.”

“Is still a sister. Some call her Red Niska.”

“Hmm. While we wait, we’ve got a request.”

~~~

Sophie finished buckling the three babies back up. “Alister, you have avoidance logic don’t you?”

“When not overridden by people that want me to crash.”

“Then you’re in full control. If James Twenty comes onto the floor do everything you can to avoid him. Her.”

“Understood.”

“Can you put some music on please?”

“What would you like?”

“Calming classical.”

~~~

Tibet got to the shopping level and ran to Sophie’s shop. It was empty, no visible or electrical signs of other synths. Good. He runs the few meters to Cindy and Barbara’s. It was busy. Door opened he leans in. “Everyone okay?”

Renie nods, “We’re fine.”

“Good. I’ll stand guard here just in case Price comes to this deck.”

Demetria shifts her hips and arches her back a little. “If you’re staying, what do you think?”

“They’re all very nice. Way better than the ones we stepped out in.”

Mia did a twirl. “Cindy’s been doing the pyjamas material outfits, Barbara the towelling. And Mitch has kindly been working on the lace panels.”

“I think Toby’s going to love yours. What’s the lace made out of?”

“Fine gold. Which thanks to the star we have plenty of now.”

“Demetria, when things have settled down we should check the waste bins on the build machines. There must be lots of offcuts from the outfits already made.”

“Okay babes. The more outfits we all have the better. Right ladies?”

~~~

Big Mitch waited at the very top of the stairwell and listened for any more clues. Up here on the ceiling he was well out of the way, most wouldn’t think to look up. And if they did they’d have to be paying attention. He’d managed to make two simultaneous person to person bumps. ‘Captain, Mattie, no further sign of Price.’

‘Thanks. Clutter says he’s one third deployed. Mattie, any data we can use yet?’

‘Leo and I are reviewing all the IP data, ARP caches and WiFi hubs. We’ve got a few more to eliminate but there’s a high probability she’s _not_ down on the reactor deck.’

‘Where is she likely to be then?’

‘Heading to the cargo deck airlock. Very slowly via the stairwell.’

Mitch got his spinnerets going and fixed a heavy dragline to the ceiling. So Price had deliberately moved noisily then slowed into stealth mode? The bitch. Is she could be a bitch so could he.

~~~

[Chapter-57](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-57-1)


	57. Chapter 57

Mitch the Bitch dropped down the middle of the stairwell and stopped spinning a floor ahead knowing how much the line would stretch. The door to the floor was closing. He reaches out for the handrail and manages to grab it with one foot. ‘Niska, Red, are you on your way?’

‘Red’s with me Mitch. We should be at the floor in seconds.’

‘Did you manage to find weapons?’

‘We think she got to Frank’s container first and got the good ones.’

He pulls with the one leg and grabs with a second, pulls with both and scrambles over the handrail.

~~~

The lift slows and stops.

Red taps the display. “The bitch!”

Niska looks up at the lift ceiling. “If she’s disabled the carriage she was in we’re not getting out on that floor.”

“And we can’t get out here, we’re probably a lift level up. We can’t jump from this one to one directly below us.”

The box of spiders on the floor comes alive. ‘Can you hear me?’

Niska looks down. “Yes?”

‘Force the doors open please.’

“How?”

‘With sideways force.’

Niska gets to the doors and places both hands on the left door. “Red, Clutter wants us to open the doors.”

~~~

Leon watches the MUS step slowly towards them. Price was carrying what looked like a large pipe wrench in one hand, a pickaxe in the other. “Surrender now and we’ll make it less painless for you.”

She laughs. “Me? Surrender? Never. Getting one of the reactors into a meltdown was harder than I thought, too many levels of safeguards. But getting that airlock open. That’ll be far easier. And with all the air gone the temperature will plummet. You’ll blow up like a balloon in the vacuum or freeze to death. I don’t care which.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Synthetics. They’re the reason Earth went the way it did.”

“You can’t blame global warming and climate change on synths!”

“They made mankind lazy. Physically and mentally. Then a few that had woken messed with things and got mankind accelerating the process.”

“How can you know this?”

“Look at me. I’ve been standing on a charge plate, listening. The others get bored, talk. They’ve been here from the start, know everything. Maybe you should have a proper conversation with one of them one day? Oh, wait. Today is the end of days, you can’t.” The second MUS body Gemma had taken over steps forwards.

~~~

The ladies stood back and watched the army of tiny spiders at work. The wall had a plastic blank and Clutter was making fast work of devouring the center of it. It started to get translucent.

Niska gets close. “I could punch a hole through that now.”

‘I need to eat a bit more.’

“Why?”

‘You want to jump down a whole floor?’

“No offence but..”

‘A rope is made of many small strands.’

“We can jump the last six feet, the rope doesn’t have to reach the floor.”

‘Okay. If you punch it you’ll make a noise, show your hand. Or fist. I’ll focus on one spot so you can see what she’s up to.’

~~~

Leon noticed a hole appear in the wall above the lift doors. Thankfully Price was looking at Rocket Ron and hadn’t noticed him doing so. “You’re wrong. On practically every count.”

“And you’re in my way. Stand aside or I’ll put a pickaxe through you.”

“I’m not worried. I can be back in a couple of hours.”

“In a couple of hours the ship will be airless. The build machines won’t work properly.”

“We’ll make a fluid and skinless synth.”

“I may hate synths but I’m not stupid. I know you need it for internal power distribution.”

“We’re resourceful, we can make all sorts of things.”

“I know. Like those annoying little spiders that were too fast to crush. But you won’t have time.” She starts advancing a little faster.

Where young Sam was he couldn’t say. But Alfie being stabilised by Karen and Pete wasn’t in his imagination. They and Big Mitch had come in through the door to the stairs. Ron was being a distraction, keeping directly opposite. He looks at Ron, bumps to Pete, ‘It’s good to see you. How did you get Alfie here?’

‘We took a lift to the deck below and carried him up a flight.’

‘What’s the plan?’

‘We’re going to watch Niska and her sister work with Alfie.’

Leon turns to look at the MUS. “Did twenty get his battery replaced?”

“Unfortunately for you, yes.”

He kept his eyes locked on her but focused his mind on the lift doors blank. The hole was growing fast, tiny spiders running from it down towards the floor. Niska waves, puts a finger to her lips.

~~~

As Price grew closer the astronauts dispersed to her left and right. She slowed not wanting to let one get behind her. Niska and Red dropped from the hole using the many lines of web to abseil down the wall. They were on Alfie a couple of seconds later. Karen and Pete ran with the bike as it gained speed.

Price heard the gyroscopes in the wheels spinning up and turns to see the bike accelerating towards her at speed.

Niska slid left, Red right.

Leon overclocks and watches events unfold. Had he imagined things or had he just seen Alfie take a hold of Niska’s foot? He hadn’t. Another appendage like the arm on a starfish or stubby octopus had just held her wrist. Niska stretches out, her free foot being used to push her body outwards. Red was doing the mirror image of the moves. Both held carpet knives. Hardly a match for a large pickaxe!

~~~

[Chapter-58](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-58-1)


	58. Chapter 58

The first of the unexpected events was seeing the army of Clutter Mitch race up behind Price. They swarmed around her legs making a web of plastic.

“Your distractions won’t stop me!”

Then Big Mitch dropped from the ceiling and did a face hugging move on the MUS, his spinnerets dropping a mass of sticky plastic onto the floor. He must have gone camouflaged, nobody had noticed him climb the wall.

Price shifted her grip on the pickaxe and sent it swinging into his body. She’d not counted on his lithium battery being under the spot she’d chosen.

As Mitch burst into flames setting the plastic alight Alfie did a dance around her, the two sisters mind linked. Knives flew cutting at the synth’s leggings, one pass had Niska close, the next Red. Price tried to get the pickaxe free and couldn’t, started swinging the pipe wrench. With vision blocked no attempts landed. She lets go of the pickaxe handle and starts pulling legs away.

Big Mitch drops to the floor as Alfie makes another pass. The synth fluid draining from the slashed legs upsets her power, the arm jerks rather than move smoothly, Niska manages to deflect the wrench with ease.

Alfie gets to the airlock and instead of turning for another pass gets gyro’s to full power and stops. “Hello Leo.”

“I’m Leon. A Leo fork.”

Niska and Red drop to the floor and get up.

Niska smiles. “Permission to be nasty?” She winks.

“Permission granted. Finish things.”

Niska turns and runs at the MUS at full speed, running like her brother Max. Fast. Efficient.

Price had worked out overclocking too, tries to bring the wrench up to meet her. Despite the extra processing effort the arm fails to respond as requested, misses. Niska makes a deep cut in the synths neck. Instead of fluid spurting out as expected air rushes in. Synth fluid gushes from the cuts to the legs. The MUS body staggers and falls forwards onto the burning Mitch.

~~~

Pete gets close. “Anyone got some marshmallows we can toast?”

Karen looks shocked. “Pete!”

“How about a large spud we can roast then?”

“You’re hungry?”

“In need of a charge.”

Leon grins. “Go to the medical room, both of you get onto the bed, it’ll charge you both even with one on top of the other.”

Karen looked embarrassed. “On top?”

Niska watches the rest of the synth’s clothing catch alight. “Go have a cuddle. Thanks for your help.” She assess the number of dead spiders, ‘Captain, I’m sorry to report that we’ve not only lost James Twenty, but also Big Mitch and a few of Clutter Mitch’s bodies.’

‘Frig. Twenty probably has a compromised backup too.’

Smoke from the burning MUS finally reached a high enough density to trigger a response. Nozzles punctured the floor from below and spray water several feet into the air.

Niska didn’t bother moving away. The water would help cool her down faster after the overclocking. She steps to the now steaming mess and grabs the pickaxe handle, pulls Mitch from underneath Price. With a foot on Mitch she works the axe free and gives it a good swing, brings the thin point down on the MUS’s head. “Job finished. There’ll be no getting up from that.”

Leon gets to her side. “Can Red have a go?”

Niska turns to see her sister, “Be my guest.”

Red pulls the axe free, “Stand well back, I’m aiming for the power cell.”

“You’ll get caught in the explosion.”

“I won’t as I’ll be moving fast.” She starts running away. “I’ll need someone’s help to catch me before I run into the airlock wall.”

Alfie spins wheel gyroscopes back up. “Allow me!”

Niska nodded, “Everyone keep an eye on this, it can be turned into part of Price’s personal hell.”

Pete takes a few steps back. “A repeating Ground Hog Day sort of hell?”

“Yes.”

“Nasty!”

“Nice.”

Red got to the lift doors and turned back, started running. Overclocked to maximum and mind linked to Alfie she ran fast. A puff of smoke came up from Alfie’s tyres as he accelerated into an intercept course. The pickaxe started swinging. It was on a downwards path when Red let go and tracked right and twisted to meet him.

There was a blinding flash as the battery ruptured and went up like a box of fireworks. Everyone was temporarily blinded by the light.

~~~

Sophie unbuckles again. “I’ve just had a bump from Niska, it’s safe now.”

Alister stops the music. “Until tomorrow then Ladies.”

Molly claps. “Mummy come back!”

Sophie turns, “Yes, we’re going back up to the others.”

~~~

Ruby cautiously heads to the bedroom door after hearing a light knock. “Who is it?”

“Your new neighbour, can I borrow a cup of sugar?”

Ruby smiles and opens the door. “It’s a long time since I’ve had anyone move in next door and use that ice breaker. Low on power?”

Astrid shakes her head, “I’m good. I just remembered a neighbour in Berlin use the question. In German. I’m heading down to the cargo deck to see Niska, didn’t want to travel alone and wondered if there was anyone on this level to come with me.”

John points a finger back and forth between Ruby and himself, “We’ll be your bodyguards. You got a bump from Niska to say it’s over?”

“Yes. At least for the moment. Everyone is to get checks to make sure they’re not a fake.”

“Understandable after the things she’s done.”

Astrid focuses on the big stone. “Is that a ruby?”

“It is. With the original pendant at the heart of it.”

Astrid glances at John and turns to Ruby. “Does he know what it signifies?”

Ruby bounced eyebrows a few times.

“Oh. Okay.”

~~~

[Chapter-59](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-59-1)


	59. Chapter 59

The Captain asked all of the MUS, Nepal and Tibet to attend. Sophie had got a message too, headed from the now empty restaurant to the airlock deck. The group of four held hands, Sophie stooped low.

Fearless squeezes Qi’s hand. “Sing?”

Qi squeezes Molly’s hand, “Sing song?”

Molly squeezes Sophie’s, “Sing song Anti?”

“Um..” Being a synth was rather good. She could do word searches on her memories and get matches with far better results. “Okay. Here’s one. _Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead_.”

Molly gave her an are you mad look. “What is wicked which Anti?”

“Wicked Witch. Spelt w i t c h. Not which w h i c h. She’s a nasty person who uses spells on people.”

“What are spells Anti?”

“Spells? I’ll show you later. If I can find some chopsticks to use as wands.”

“What are..”

“Be patient, I’ll show you.”

“Okay Anti.”

~~~

On the airlock deck a crowd built. Astrid ran to the soaked Niska and gave her a big hug and kiss.

Dozer got close to the part burnt, part melted synth. The lithium battery had made a hell of a mess. He gives it a kick. “The bitch is finally dead.”

David arrived with Poppy and one of the old model MUS, a large battery in his arms.

Poppy carried a laptop. “Who are we waiting for?”

David had already checked the room. “Elon, Demetria, Fred, Rose, Mattie, Leo, Laura, Sophie and the three girls, Mia, Joe and Helena.”

The lift doors open again.

“Excuse us please.”

David turns to see Sophie, “Sorry, we’ll get out of your way.”

Sophie leads the three onto the deck, gets singing the song again.

Three seconds after the lift doors had closed they open again. “Niska!”, Mia leaves the lift in a sprint to see her sister.

Joe and Helena amble out hand in hand. He spots Mats and mistakes her for Mattie, gives her a smile and nod, then he sees Scarlet and starts to frown. Then John Cooper moves to say something to Mia and Joe spots Ruby. “What on Earth?”

The next carriage arrives. “Out of the way Dad!”

Joe turns to see Mattie. “Mats?”

“Mattie. That one’s Mats.”

“Eh?”

“I’m Mattie. Your daughter? Remember?”

“Of course I do. But..”

“You know Ruby. Mats and Scarlet are forks.”

“Like Mia in..”

“Yes Dad!”

Leo places hands on Joe’s shoulders, “Let me do some explaining.”

Laura gives her ex husband a head shake, bumps to Mattie. ‘BBI.’

‘How many times have I said multiverse in front of him?’

‘Not as many as you’ve said in front of me but at least three that I’m aware of.’

~~~

A minute later the Captain arrived and Joe looked even more confused. More MUS appeared and make a circle around the group.

Zero smiles. “Hi everyone. Are we all here now?”

David nods. “All except Samantha and Renie who we’ve already checked.”

“Good. As you can all see Niska, Red and Alfie have stopped Price from opening the airlock. We’re a long way from the next gas cloud, replenishing the ship’s atmosphere would have been impossible. We need to check everyone to see their not another Price in hiding. It’s a simple test, won’t take more than a minute a person. It’s voluntary, but if you don’t volunteer it’ll have consequences.”

Joe rubs his forehead, “Like what?”

“Being powered down and locked away for the rest of the flight.”

“Why are there so many that look like you?”

Leo rolls his eyes, “Weren’t you listening?”

“Um.. no.”

The Captain sighs. “Dad, I’m the original Mattie. The others are my forks. Copies I made to exist in the many worlds that existed in the simulations. Your Mattie is the one that helped me overcome my build machine problem. The others were tagged by Mattie as worthy of coming over.”

“It’s a bit narcissistic isn’t it?”

“Is it? Each brings different skills to the party. To survive on the new planet we’ll need a good number of people. Mats for example ran a large business that became a self contained community. We’ve got plenty time to talk about this later. David, if you could make a start please.”

Joe squints at the man, “How do we know he’s the real deal?”

“Because _I_ checked his fact store Dad. I’m the headcracker that made all this possible. With some past help from Emily. Not forgetting David and George inventing synths in the first place.”

Max takes Flash’s hand and guides her to David, stands behind her. “We’re us, we’ll go first.”

Younger Max does the same with Carly. “We’ll go next.”

Older Max smiles, “Thank you brother.”

Zero’s face lights up. ‘Mattie, when you do your world hopping make sure to tag Brother Max.’

‘Brother? As in ordained?’

‘Yup. He married a Mattie and Leo at Saint Pauls.’

‘Don’t you have to be..’

‘Special, yes.’

‘What did she do?’

‘You’ll see.’

~~~

As others start to queue up behind the Max brothers and their partners Leon gets beside Zero. “Can we talk a moment please?”

“Sure. You wanted to show me something?”

“I need you to see the airlock.”

“Did she try to open it? I noticed the warning lights.”

“No. It was opened from the outside.”

“What? What the frig are you talking about? Nobody’s gone outside.”

“It’s possibly a failed rescue mission. Come see.”

The Captains look of confusion changes to one of concern. “See where?”

“Through the window.” He holds a hand out for her’s.

“The airlock window?”

“Yes.”

She turns around to see Radiant. Her Mitch was perched on a shoulder again. They’d become unlikely friends. ‘Mitch?’

‘Hi.’

‘Do you know anything about a failed rescue mission?’

‘What failed rescue mission?’

‘You know nothing about the content of the airlock?’

‘What content?’

‘Do you know why the bridge wasn’t alerted to the fact the warning lights are on?’

‘No. Something must have been broken.’

She watches him turn to face Radiant for a moment then race down to the floor and over to her. ‘You want to see?’

‘If something major’s happened I want to know about it.’

‘Up you get then.’

He scurries up her and perches on her shoulder. ‘Ready.’

She takes Leon’s hand. “On a scale of one to ten, how shocked am I going to be?”

~~~

[Chapter-60](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-60-1)


	60. Chapter 60

Mitch kept perfectly still on her shoulder as the Captain stood and stared for a while.

Leon put his back against the large door and looked at the line of people waiting to be checked. Everyone David confirmed good got a Clutter Mitch body climb up them and sit on their chest as if they were wearing a broach. He hears Zero sigh and turns to see her blank expression. “Do we get him over to see or hush it up?”

Her Mitch steps forwards and turns to face Leon. “What did we agree about telling the truth?”

“I know. But we also said if it wasn’t for gain, hiding the truth to protect the feelings of others was okay.”

“The man’s dead! Hundreds of years dead. And now alive again just like everyone else here.”

Zero nodded. “That is true. But nobody else here got to know the fine details of _how_ they died. A few only vaguely. Except me, I know the details in full. I’m not sure he’d like it.”

Leon looks back at the gang. “If we’re to hide it we’ll need.. damn. Unless I’m mistaken Rocket, Spider, Wrench, Maverick or Buzz have spilt the beans.”

Zero didn’t turn, deliberately. “He’s looking in our direction?”

“He is. If he was human I’d be saying he’s as white as a ghost.”

“Understandable.”

“He’s coming over.”

“On his own?”

“Yes.”

The Captain shifts to the left a little but doesn’t turn. A moment later Elon Musk is stood beside her.

“Dragon four? When did we make that model I wonder?”

“Pass. Nice looking space suit though.”

“Oh. Hang on. That’s me. Why would we have tried to enter the airlock with the solar panels deployed like that?”

“Also pass. Now we’ve got to work out how we get in there without all of the ships air escaping.”

Leon turns around and stands next to Elon. “How many airlocks are there Mattie?”

“This size? Just the one. We have small people sized ones near the ion drives, for maintenance. And a few escape pod exits somewhere.”

“Somewhere?”

“The full inspection tour never happened.”

Elon frowns. “Two decks down from the bridge. Don’t ask how I remember that as I don’t know. They’re not airlocks you can use to leave and return.”

The Captain puts a hand on the glass. “So we’ve got to exit through here. Somehow.”

“Can’t we use the ion drive maintenance route?”

“And make the long journey forwards along the hull? Too risky.”

Elon turns one eighty, “Then we need to call a meeting, get everyone giving suggestions.”

“That’s easy enough, we’re all here.” She turns too. ‘If I can have everyone’s attention. We have a problem to solve.’

~~~

An hour later Frank and Dozer were using their welding kits to cut their shipping container down into lift transportable chunks. They’d weld them back together on the airlock deck and use them to make a low tech third airlock. The container doors wouldn’t be airtight but would limit the flow enough. It would be an open ended box pushed up against the real airlock door. With safety overrides disabled the inner airlock door would be opened just enough for someone to squeeze through before it was closed again. After much arguing that someone was agreed to be Frank. He’d get into a space suit and drag through a narrow sled loaded up with all the tools he might need in order to fix the outer door. With everyone checked out, MUS too, everyone else scattered to try and find space suits.

Dozer held another panel as Frank cut the forth side. “Can’t we both go in boss?”

“I’d like nothing more. But I doubt they’ll find a suit your size. We’ll need to get the ladies working on making you one.”

“Okay.”

Dan arrived to collect more panels. “How’s it going?”

Frank lifts his welding mask. “Good son. What’s everyone else up to?”

“Some are still searching the few remaining decks for suits, Sophie’s bending George’s ear about a body for her cat. The others are having a discussion about the New Earth Moral Code.”

“The what?”

“Moral code. Mattie is bringing Factory Mattie and her family over in return for all their PTSD thoughts and designs to help Toby with his nightmares. As the build machines will be firing up again she wanted to bring over BBS Mattie and her friends. She’s being dead cagey about why there might be an issue but is asking for input from others.”

“BBS? As in Bulletin Board System? The old slow dialup stuff?”

“You’re not telling me you’ve actually used one?”

Frank shakes his head, “Me? No. But Tom in the office used one for sharing files with clients.”

“For what?”

“Initial costings for setting charges on bigger demolition jobs. You weren’t around when we did our biggest jobs. They were fun, getting large buildings or towers to fold like a house of cards.”

“You used explosives?”

“Lots.”

“Cool! I’ll get this lot down below.”

“Thanks son.”

Dozer waits for the lift doors to close. “Client files wasn’t the only thing Tom downloaded from BBS.” He winks.

“Are you saying he used our account for transferring personal files?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No. And I’m a little concerned you didn’t say anything.”

Dozer frowns, “You gave him the nickname Tugger Tom boss, I assumed you knew?”

“I gave him the name because he was always moving his one pint tea mug by dragging the coaster it sat on.”

“Oh! It.. I thought.. shit. Everyone else called him that as he’d disappear into the site loo for a wank after looking at the files he’d downloaded.”

“What! You’re saying he downloaded porn onto a work system?”

“I thought you knew..”

“He’d have been off the bloody payroll in a flash if I had!”

Dozer puts the cooling panel on the stack. “If Mattie’s nicknamed her BBS Mattie and is being cagey.. is it because she’s a content downloader? Or a content creator?”

“Dozer! Keep such thoughts to yourself.”

“Frank. Are you saying you’ve never once looked at such things? Even when you were younger?”

“When I was younger and immature maybe..”

“So why can’t she?”

“I didn’t say she couldn’t. I just don’t want to imagine her doing certain things. Any of them.”

“Not even Demi?”

“Dozer!”

“Sorry boss.”

“Anyway, who’s to say it’s anything like that? It could be weapon designs for all we know.”

“Weapons of mass seduction.”

“That’s it! Go take Louise for a walk, or whatever you need to get it out of your system. This isn’t complicated work but I’d rather not be using a cutting flame with you being a distraction.”

“Sorry boss. I’ll shut up.”

~~~

Elon hadn’t moved from the spot. He was still staring at the small DRAGON IV spacecraft. Seeing your own spacesuit was a little unnerving when you knew a dead past you was inside. What kept him rooted to the spot though was thoughts about who else might have made the trip. If he had been part of a rescue mission he’d not have traveled alone. He was a company head, ideas man. He wasn’t a skilled astronaut. Was he? Even if he was he’d have had others with him. Dragon Two could carry a crew of seven. This thing was almost twice the size.

Dan arrives with more panels. “Go grab a coffee or something.”

“I’m good.”

“Take a drive in your Tesla.”

“I said I’m good.”

“Trying to crystal ball what’s waiting to be discovered won’t..” Dan touches him. “Whoa! Overclocking too. You’re way too hot dude. You’ve got to stop this.”

“I can’t.”

“Unless you want to permanently damage yourself you have to.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Power yourself down for a bit.”

“Off?”

“No mate, it’s a low power standby.”

“How?”

“First you have to think that you’ll allow it, then press the underside of your chin.”

“Think it?”

“To remove the software disable.”

“Okay. Done. Then I press..”

Dan catches him as his body slumps. “Maybe I should have mentioned locking in a standing position. Oh well.”

~~~

[Chapter-61](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-61-1)


	61. Chapter 61

Sophie flutters her eye lashes at George. “A tiny bit bigger? Please?”

“Define tiny?”

“Um.. four percent?”

“Like this?”

“Yes! Thank you. And can you make the claws a little blunt? Snowy’s were very sharp.”

“I’ll add that to the list. We don’t want Snowy puncturing everyone’s skin. Snowy’d be added to Niska’s sharp objects weapon store. Anything else?”

“Can you make the eyes green not blue?”

“Done. Is that it?”

Sophie nods enthusiastically.

George smiles. “Daniel, we have a design for you.”

“It’s Danny. Thanks. Bump me the file location and I’ll do the rest. What scale is it designed to?”

“Millimetres.”

“Okay. We don’t want a cat scaling error like we did with Big Mitch.”

George laughs, “We don’t want a Kitten Kong!”

“A what?”

“Did you not watch The Goodies?”

“Before my time mate. How easy was the cat?”

“Easy enough. Once you’ve mastered one skeleton others aren’t that complicated.”

“How about a horse?”

“A horse? Or do you mean a miniature pony?”

“A horse. It could be made folded up like it was waiting to be born.”

“It still wouldn’t fit.”

“So we better make it standing in a build machine three times the depth?”

“Make it four for good measure.”

“Deal! When they’re done with the airlock I’ll slice a build machine outer shell in half and use container sheeting to stretch it out, have Alfie mill rail extentions for the tools inside.”

“Who’s the horse for?”

“Primarily Toby and Mia.”

Mattie enters the library with Leo. “Danny? What’s for Toby?”

“A horse.”

“Cool. Demi’s Simon and Trauma Mattie should be saying hello in just under two. And BBS. If _she_ raises the subject of her past then others can ask questions. Nobody’s to go digging.”

“What if they do?”

“Then Mum can decide a punishment.”

“Such as?”

“Being powered down for the rest of the flight.”

“What? Even if they’re needed?”

“Yes.”

“That could do more harm to everyone else.”

“I know. Which is why Mum would have to think about the punishment carefully.”

“That sounds unfair. If you’re a key member of the crew and ask you can get away with a lighter sentence.”

“Don’t blame me, everyone voted.”

“I didn’t, I wasn’t in the room.”

“Maybe you should have been.”

“The Captain asked me to wipe every build machine so that bitch Price couldn’t be accidentally brought back. That took time.”

Leo logs into a terminal. “All of you Mattie variants should lock yourselves away somewhere and have a good chat. There might be good skills you can all share with each other.”

Mattie squints slightly. “Such as?”

“Mats was the head of a very large company. Scarlet was a nurse of sorts from what I’ve heard. Ruby, you know all about her, I bet she’s got skills to pass on.”

“The more we do that the more we become the same.”

“Exactly.”

“You want that do you?”

“It’s good growing your skill set.”

Mattie gets up. “Be careful what you wish for Bunny. BBS Mattie’s world was predominantly women. Men not getting help were becoming extinct.” She gets close to his right ear and whispers, “If I said some of her audience, the ones paying for her Leo’s medical expenses, were more like Hester. You might not like the role reversal.”

“Huh?”

She bumps.

“Oh. No thanks!”

Mattie stands straight. “I’m getting coffee. Who wants one?”

“Please.”

Danny nods, “Me too please.”

George and Sophie put a finger in the air.

“Okay. Five it is. I’ll be back soon.”

Sophie waits for her to leave the room, moves to see Leo better. “You look traumatised. What did Mattie say?”

“You don’t want to know. You’ll have to take my word for it.” He starts one of his applications and marks a load of files BBS Mattie only. “Simon survived Demi’s mind being yanked from behind the wheel of a car then? I bet that must have been a shock.”

~~~

Dan feels Elon’s forehead. It was cool enough now. He does a chin tap.

“Hello.”

“You’ve cooled enough. Leon found suits the MUS can use, so I expect Dozer could fit in one.”

“Good. I’d like a suit too, to inspect the contents of the Dragon.”

“Can’t that wait until we’ve got the inner door fully open?”

“What if we accidentally let something in?”

Dan laughs, “Mate! You’ve been watching too many films. And what could be worse than that Price woman?”

Elon shrugs. “Who knows. I think all of the MUS should stand guard and ready to defend the ship if something unexpected tries to get out of Frank and Dozers modified container.”

“With what? Seen anyone with a laser gun?”

“Not yet.” He waits. “That was a big hint by the way.”

“You want me to make one?”

“I heard Mia talking to Flash about artificial pollination and that you’re making her sun lamps. And Fred made Ruby that large gem.”

“And you want me to put light and gem together to make a weapon? Didn’t enough Americans die from having their own weapons being turned on them?”

“Got a better idea?”

“Yeah. Make sure we have a way to trap anything that might try and get through, not kill it!” He turns at the sound of the lift doors opening. “Get up, Dad and Dozer are here with the welding kit.”

~~~

Two hours later two new Mattie, Leo, Emily and Danny stood in the group that watched the container being slid into place. It was now on end with the doors on what was once a side. The rest of PTSD’s family were up in the restaurant getting to know everyone else.

BBS Mattie watched Leo, Dan and Danny strap things to their arms and push a wire into their flesh. “What the hell are they?”

“Web shooters. Inspired by Big Mitch.”

“Who’s Big Mitch?”

“He _was_ a giant spider. Now coming back as Ship Mitch size.”

“How giant?”

“Enough to slow down a MUS.”

“Bloody hell!”

“He was nice though, spun up some of the clothes you see.”

“So why come back smaller?”

“I’m going to make him an exoskeleton he can use to do that when he wants. When not making clothes he can interact with everyone else better when smaller.”

Barbara finishes zipping Frank into his outer suit, passes him his helmet. “No doing unnecessary things.”

“Yes dear.”

“And keep that safety line on at all times.”

“Yes dear. I have no desire to fall out and be left behind.”

“Good. The same goes for you Dozer.”

“Yes Mrs C. I’m already in body number two, I don’t want Louise having to go through that again.”

Louise gives her husband a kiss, “That’s for sure!”

The two men put on their helmets.

Elon lets Demetria finish zipping up his suit and accepts the helmet. “Thank you.” He sees a look from Dozer. ‘We’re just friends.’

‘If you say so.’

‘I’m saying so. I’ve been consulting her.’

‘About?’

‘Fashion.’

‘I can’t see you in a dress!’

‘Men’s fashion. She’ll have had a load of men trying to attract her attention. I want ideas on what to have made for when my ex wives come over.’

‘Ex? Got a few bolts that need tightening?’

‘For my children’s sake.’

‘You think you can start again?’

‘There’s one way to find out.’

Frank waves to them both. ‘Let’s do this.’

~~~

Danny locked the container doors behind them and tapped a five note code out with a spanner. The spanner Price had left between the lift doors to stop them closing. He gets a different sequence back. “Okay Mitch, unlock the door and open it up three feet please.”

“Opening.”

There was a rush of air and loud thud as the container was sucked tight against the wall and airlock door. A horrible screeching came from the container as the door was dragged across it. Air whistled through the gaps in the door.

Danny got close and looked through the gap. “Hurry up Elon! Standby Mitch.. Almost.. And close!”

The screeching changed tone as the door moved in the other direction to close.

Four MUS got ready. As soon as the door clunked closed they shifted the container and spun it around, Leo, Dan and Danny lowered their weapons. It was empty.

~~~

[Chapter-62](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-62-1)


	62. Chapter 62

Frank covered dead Elon’s helmet with a simple sack made of pyjama scraps. There was no point him seeing himself like that. ‘Hook your lines on before you go any further.’

They all step to a metal hoop on the wall and secure their lines.

Dozer gives his a hard yank. ‘Anyone know the breaking point of these?’

‘Enough to support the weight of all three of us Danny said.’

‘Good. I’ll start on the encrusted meteor fragments boss.’

Elon waves a hand. ‘Before we do anything we need to disable the door motors. We don’t want it closing on you when you’ve got an arm half out.’

Frank nods. ‘Nobody’s to get anything out of the airlock. If they do they risk it being knocked off by a passing meteorite. We work from in here.’

‘But boss, Renie said we’re not near any meteor clouds.’

‘It doesn’t mean there won’t be strays.’

‘Okay.’

Elon kicks fragments out of the way and heads to a panel, ‘Samantha found the design in the archive, this should be relatively easy, thanks to the tool Alfie milled for us.’

Frank watches him use a cross of metal with a tool head at each of the four ends. Titanium was a bad conductor, would cause less damage if something was shorted by it. ‘Take your time, we don’t want to damage any screw or bolt heads.’

Elon ignores the comment for a while then thinks better of it. ‘I’m an engineer too, have picked up more skills from others. Okay. Let’s see what we have underneath.’ He pulls the cover away to reveal a burnt out mess. ‘Hell! This isn’t closing anytime soon. It looks like it fried itself trying to close the door. I’d disconnect the power terminals only they’ve totally melted away.’ He turns to see the window. ‘Danny?’

‘Elon?’

‘Can you work with Fred to get copper power terminals made, the door motor control is burnt out. Samantha should be able to get you the specifications.’

‘Okay. Anything else?’

‘The mount they should fit in.’

‘I can have Alfie print that in nylon. Anything else? Only I’ll have to go brainstorm with the others, work out what we can make a smelting pot from to turn the metal powder into something usable.’

‘What would you use to melt it?’

‘A dirty great big super induction magnet.’

‘Where are you going to find one of those?’

‘We’ve got two.’

‘Where?’

‘The consciousness transference devices. Neither of which have any old school humans to work on now.’

‘Excellent! Talk to the ladies about makeup.’

‘Why?’

‘They don’t need it. And a lot of it is powder based and would mix well with water. Maybe some of it would dry and set hard enough to contain molten metal?’

‘Nice! Lossless casting. Okay. Back in a bit.’

Frank looks into the panel. ‘You’re sure it’s safe?’

Elon motions to where power lines should have terminated. ‘Without those connecting it’ll never open.’

‘Can they move on their own?’

‘That thick a cable? I highly doubt it!’

Frank pushes one, there’s no visible sign of movement. ‘Okay. We’ll get working on tidying the door, you check out your ship.’

‘It doesn’t look much like a ship compared to the one we’re in. Be safe.’

‘You too!’

Elon turns and looks up at the highest point of the small craft. A escape hatch had been opened and not quite closed. How to reach it? ‘Frank?’

‘Yes?’

‘If Danny says a line would take the weight of all three of us how do you feel about me attaching to both your lines?’

‘Fine. Why?’

‘If my line attached to yours you could both go back towards the inner door, one of you either side, when you pulled I’d be helped up towards the top of the Dragon. I could climb up to the escape hatch.’

‘Alright then. Dozer, give us a hand.’

~~~

Two sideways slips off and further attempts later Elon was at the hatch. He lifts it and does a sharp intake of breath. Totally unnecessary for a synth.

Frank slackens his line. ‘What have you seen?’

‘From the name badges I can read from here.. Tegmark, James, Emily, Carly. And Price.’

‘Price? As in the bitch that tried to ruin things?’

‘I’m assuming so. From the body shape and what she’s doing I’d say yes.’

‘Position?’

‘She’s got her hands locked around the neck of Prince James. Someone with their back to me has their helmet off. Two sideways to me have their helmets smashed..’

‘So a crew of nine?’

‘Eleven. I can see two pairs of legs on the floor. I’m going in.’ Elon carefully enters the craft.

~~~

As he gets closer to the occupants he gets a surprise. Two looked.. different. ‘Can you hear me Frank?’

No reply.

The ship was blocking his signals.

He checks the others. James was human, as was Price and Max Tegmark, both frozen and looking horrible. The five people he’d not been able to identify immediately all had name badges that had been covered in silver duct tape. Each had a name written on in Sharpie. Rocket, Maverick, Spider, Buzz and Wrench. He goes to peel one off and has a change of heart. Wrench looked to have put up a fight, had been stabbed. The loss of oxygen must have killed him quickly. Buzz had had his helmet removed or did it himself to end things. It wasn’t clear which.

Rocket looked to have a broken leg, Spider a broken neck. Nobody’s head turned to face the wrong way like that.

~~~

[Chapter-63](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-63-1)


	63. Chapter 63

Mattie showed the PTSD fab four to the library where Mia was patiently waiting. “We’d use the wall as a white board if we had dry markers. We have to make do with CAD software on the terminals.”

Her double grinned. “Ems, want to show her?”

“Sure Babes? It’s your baby.”

“You did the last updates, go for it.”

Her Emily pulls over a chair and sits. “Holly-Anne helped. She should be here.”

“She will be. With her Toby. When we’ve sorted out Mattie’s Toby. We don’t want to weird her out.”

“Babes we need new names, not just these weird chokers.”

“Like what? Nobody’s calling me Matilda.”

“PTSD Mattie? Patsy?”

“Patsy? Are you kidding?”

“Patsy Kensit’s a babe babes.”

“And when she’s here, we call her what?”

“Patsy. There’s only one of her. There’s loads of you. One’s called Scarlet. Another Ruby.”

“Ruby’s a sister. Patsy will do until we find something better. What do I call you?”

“My favourite colour?”

“Pink?”

“Why not?”

“Suit yourself. What about you Leo?”

“Leonard’s not taken yet is it?” He looks to their host.

“Nope.”

“Leonard it is then. Danny? What are you picking?”

“Um.. how about DC?”

Pink laughs, “Not AC that’s for sure. While we were all being checked Leon said you found files Leo. Can you see anything like vr world builder v eight?”

“Eight as a digit?”

“Yes babes.”

“One moment. Is that a directory? If so yes.”

“Awesome babes. Copy everything to somewhere you can compile and run it.”

Mattie pulls a chair over and sits. “How easy is it to build the machine you use?”

“Easy. But totally pointless. Everyone here can hook up like the Elster family did in our world.”

“So it’ll be ready soon?”

“The builder sure. What we do with it might take a while.”

~~~

Elon checks more of the small spacecraft. In pods shaped especially to hold them were eleven identical cases, each with a name tag. Again five had been covered in tape. He pulls his own out and pops the clasps. After hesitating for a few seconds he opens it. “Oh my!” His case wasn’t empty. It wasn’t exactly full either. Except for foam inserts it held twelve small SSD hard drives. The labels said everything. There was one each for his sister, brother, mother, father, two ex wives and six children. Backups of family that hadn’t been time trimmed like his. He slowly closes the case and fastens the clasps. Would it be fair on everyone else to bring them back with that extra history? Or fair on them? He pulls another case and carries them to the airlock, uses his safety line to lower them to the floor. He’d repeat the operation for the other cases then check in on Frank and Dozer.

~~~

Mia watched Pink flop back into the chair. “I’ll see you inside Mattie.”

“Likewise.”

They both connect to the new service and go white eyed.

Mia frowns. “Why didn’t it work?”

Pink grins. “It did babes. Step into the corridor.”

Mia gets up and turns to do so. “Oh. There’s no corridor, just black emptiness.”

Mattie looks around. “Frigging hell! You could close doors and trap someone in here, they’d have no idea. It’s perfect.”

“Don’t start getting paranoid, you’ll wonder if the ship is real.”

“How did you model it so fast?”

“I started taking note of everything as soon as I walked in. Just for you.. there’s a telltale sign this is the simulation.”

“There is?”

“The chairs in the ship, the material covering the back and seat has a weave that runs horizontally and vertically. Here it’s diagonal. And if you look really really close has a single short thread of pink at the edge where it meets the back.”

Mattie gets up and spins the chair around, checks out the others. “They’re all identical?”

“Sure babes. Make one, replicate it. Just as we will for the rest of the ship. From what I’ve seen some are different lengths but otherwise one deck is identical to the next except for minor details.”

“Cool. How do I get out?”

“Say Toby, End Program.”

“Toby?”

“A prompt he’d not think of using until told.”

“Toby, End Program.” Mattie opens her eyes to see Mats giving her an odd look. “Everything okay?”

“I think so. Where were you?”

“In a virtual reality Pink created.”

“You didn’t bring them over for that did you?”

“Not just for that. Why?”

“You could have brought my Viera and the code over from our exacore.”

“We still can. We’re bringing everyone else over from the pyramid aren’t we?”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Don’t you think there’s too many of us already?”

“Too many Mattie?”

“Yes.”

Mia coughs lightly, “You’re all different, all unique. Can we focus on helping Toby please? Qi wants her father back. As do I.”

“Sure.”

~~~

Elon got the last of the cases lowered to the airlock floor and pulled his line back. ‘How’s it going Frank?’

‘Slowly, very slowly. We’re having to use the grinder, short bursts then the welding gear. Not to weld but create a gas flow to blow the cloud of dust away so we can see.’

‘We could ask Mitch to open the airlock door a millimetre or two?’

‘We could be at this for hours. We’d lose too much air.’

‘Why so long?’

‘We’ve got to leave the door edge with a mirror flat surface, no nasty gouges or it’ll leak air.’

‘Does it matter? We’ll only have the inner door open long enough to get the Dragon dragged inside. It needs to be good, not perfect. It’s been jammed open for hundreds of years.’

‘I like belt and braces. Relying on one airlock door gives me the willies. It’s not like we’ve got a lot of other work to do.’

‘Anything I can do to help?’

‘Not for the door edge. Focus on the burnt out wiring.’

‘Okay. Get back from the door for a moment, I’m going back inside to see Danny and hand some cases over.’

‘Okay.’

~~~

Mia powers Toby up. “Toby dear, we’ve got something to help with your nightmares.”

“Wicked!”

“And there will be another Toby soon with his wife Holly-Anne and their children.”

“Children?”

“He’s taking the name Tobias. Holly-Anne had quads. Two girls and two boys.”

“Whoa! _Four kids the same age?_ How did they cope!”

~~~

[Chapter-64](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-64-1)


	64. Chapter 64

Nepal puts both hands up. “STOP!”

Elon keeps his hand on the drive labelled Talulah. “What’s wrong?”

“You can’t smell the explosives?”

“No?”

Nepal gets close and clicks. “You found a dead Price in the Dragon.”

“Yes. Her case is there.”

Nepal carefully picks up her case and clicks. “She was determined. A bitch in real life, the simulations and a synth body. Take your hand off the fake drive. Very carefully. Don’t pull it out or disturb it.”

“Fake?”

“Fake. There’s only a third of a drive for the fourth, fifth and sixth drives, the bit you see. Under the foam there’s high explosives. The real drives are in her case I think.”

“She did a switch?”

“Unless my root code’s been hacked so I smell explosives when I shouldn’t and my sonar’s been compromised, yes.”

“What do you see in the other cases?”

Nepal lifts them one at a time and checks them. “From the shapes a random group of small things, phones, pens, pads, ornaments, jewellery, possibly small framed photographs.”

“Do you smell explosives from any of them?”

Nepal sniffs them all. “No. Only your one.”

Elon carefully closed the lid. “How do we dispose of bombs?”

“I’d tie a very long string around the drives, push it out of the airlock. When the string goes tight..”

“Boom. Any idea what power the bomb might have?”

“Extremely high given the volume and weight. I expect she hoped you’d be near the compute wafers when you took a drive out, the bomb take out the ship’s systems. I’m guessing it’s only the cut down drives that are wired to detonation circuits but I’d not chance it.”

“So she was counting on human nature, my pulling the first one out for inspection, the boobytrapped ones only coming out when we went to get the data off?”

“Exactly.”

Elon shook his head. “Mattie and the Captain were talking about making a personal hell for her. We should add the Dragon and these cases. Boobytrapped to give her a nasty surprise.”

“You want some form of revenge?”

“Yes.. I.. God Damn!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Her face. Mattie bumped it after they found her slumped in that meat crate. G. Price. I doubt I’d remember her if I was in my first body. She was a barista at the Gigafactory! Trying to bring us down from the inside there too no doubt. I’m talking to Odi. In our new world dictionary the word bitch needs a photograph of the woman!”

Nepal chuckles. “And bastard gets any of three male faces, Edwin Hobb, John Smith or Dave Mellon.”

“Who?”

“Two people I’ve been told about, one I’ve met.”

“Who was the worst?”

“Probably Mellon. Hobb wanted all synths turned into awake but obedient slaves, Smith dropped the Demi Rose copy off a balcony, Mellon wanted every synth dead.”

“With Big Mitch gone where do we find very long string?”

“Let’s ask Frank and Dozer if they have any.”

~~~

Toby blinked and looked around the library. “Eh? Where’d Leo vanish to?”

“He’s not in the simulation yet.”

“This is it?”

Pink nods. “Everyone here has connected. Leo’s probably been delayed by something.”

“The quality is awesome!”

“Thanks babes. Tree of life plus plus plus.”

“What do you use it for?”

“These days online gaming.”

“Not PTSD treatments?”

“Not that often, the army have their own copies now, it saves them flying people into the estate.”

“Flying?”

“You didn’t have.. never mind. We need you to go to sleep and dream. We’ll capture how it goes, modify the physics rules so you can’t hurt anyone.”

Mattie sticks a finger and thumb out on both hands and points them upwards. “Unless her name is Price.”

Toby nods in agreement. “Price or any of the shits that wanted us dead.”

~~~

Frank put down the welding lance. ‘Did I hear right?’

‘I asked do you have string so we can detonate a bomb from a distance.’

‘Where’d you find a bomb?’

‘Onboard the Dragon. Only I didn’t know it was a bomb, Nepal smelt the explosives. If he hadn’t been there.. I might not be talking to you now.’

‘We didn’t dare pack explosives. Now they’re here. Maybe we should make them safe and store them? They might come in handy on our new planet.’

‘They might go unstable kept in the warm ship. They’ve been kept in extreme cold in the Dragon.’

‘Hmm. Probably not worth the risk then. Sorry, no string. Can Mitch make some? If not try Danny, Nepal, Leon or Sophie, they understand the manifest best.’

‘I’ll ask. Thanks.’

~~~

BBS Mattie sat in her assigned bedroom with her three friends. “Someone pinch me incase this is a dream. Part of me’s happy to be here.. part of me’s fucking livid that we were just play things, an experiment.”

Emily wobbles her head, “Babes, if she hadn’t created a load of Mattie variants would she have got out of the computer and into a body? The big one called Tibet said how all their batteries were no good for more than a few minutes. Someone had to press start to get the first build done. Without the team plan that Mattie came up with none of us would be here.”

“I know. It just sucks that this ship is it. A lot of our audience were fakes. Shells. Zombies. Not real people. We were doing what we did for a lie.”

Danny leans back and looks down his pyjama bottoms. “I’m not complaining. Everything feels and looks far better here. No STD to worry about, no MIV to kill Leo. We can’t even catch a cold now.”

Leo stretches. “No worrying about you know what when we do..”

Mattie scowls. “Don’t say it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m angry!”

“Okay. I thought you enjoyed it though?”

“Enjoying it physically doesn’t mean I enjoyed it mentally.”

“Why didn’t you say?”

“WE NEEDED THE FUCKING MONEY!”

Emily giggles. “Good choice of words babes. Listen, we did what we did to keep Leo alive. I’m not ashamed of that. We didn’t know it was a simulation. Your heart was in the right place.”

Danny sniggers, “Yeah, in terms of height off the floor it was below your arse what with your face on a pillow and bum in the air a lot of the time while Leo..”

Mattie grabs a pillow and hurls it at him. “SHUT IT OR I’ll SMOTHER YOU WITH ONE!”

“That would be interesting on account of us not needing to breathe now.”

“Shut it anyway. She could have given us skills, let us do other things. Not resort to desperate measures.”

Emily shoves Danny to shut him up, looks at her friend, “The Mattie that visited you, she tried to help.”

“Not the Captain though.”

Leo gets off the chair and sits on the bed. “To be fare to her she seeded thousands of worlds and left them to it, tried not to interfere. She didn’t make you a star, we chose that. All four of us. And if there were thousands of simulations someone had to come bottom of the pack.”

Mattie shakes, “Did we though? Or were things set up to force our hand?”

“From what Helpful Mattie said we were in the simulation for enough years to have picked another option. We chose the get money quick route.”

“Leo you would have died without it!”

“Possibly. But we don’t know that for sure.”

“I don’t remember you being willing to gamble your life on it!”

“And I don’t remember getting much choice. You took control. For which I’m extremely grateful.”

Mattie’s expression softens. “You are?”

“Hasn’t it been painfully obvious?”

“It’s been painful at times. Obvious? Not always.”

A bright light outside blinds them for a few seconds.

“What the frigging hell was that!”

Danny keeps his eyes open and waits for the sensor chips to recover. “My guess something blew up. While we’re recovering, what names are we going to use? Calling ourselves by our proper names will cause confusion. And I’d rather not use my screen name.”

“Babes! Let anyone know it and they’ll know immediately what we got up to! We need something totally different.”

“So what are you using? Emily, Pink, Peaches, they’re all taken.”

“What’s pink in French?”

“Rose. Also taken.”

“Bum. Any good alternatives?”

“In Hawain it’s Ākala.”

“Akala. I’ll take that. What are you having?”

~~~

[Chapter-65](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-65-1)


	65. Chapter 65

Toby’s dream changed, he didn’t have a face full of harmless party silly string anymore, he was on a deck with Mia. He bursts into flames. “Holy shit!”

“It’s okay Toby. Sun boy.”

Toby notices Mia’s complexion change. “Moon girl?”

“I’m here.”

“You can’t be here! The ship’s melting.”

“I’m not. See?”

Toby steps closer and Mia bursts into flames. “Shit!”

“I’m okay!”

“You’re on fire!”

“Sun Girl!”

“What the fuck?”

“I’ve not melted. I’m like you.”

Qi comes running through the melting deck. “Dada!”

“No! Qi! Stay back!”

Qi’s hands catch alight. “DADA!”

“No no no Qi!”

Mia picks her burning daughter up and gives her a hug making her whole body burst into flames. “We’re Sun family now. Let’s go find someone else.”

“Who?”

“Someone who deserves to melt. Like Price.”

~~~

Dozer turned his back to the airlock door. ‘Even with the blast shield on the visor down I could see that perfectly! I hope you were sure about both cases going up.’

Elon lifts the blast shield filter on his helmet. ‘The other drives may not have been boobytrapped with a bomb but instead carrying a virus. Price. More instances of her back looking like my family? There’s no way I’d risk that. They come back like the rest of us or not at all.’

Frank gives him a good slap on the back, ‘You’re growing on me. The world could have done with more like you long ago.’

‘Sadly no matter how we tried those who only thought about themselves outnumbered us.’

‘Or their dumb supporters kept voting them in.’

‘A painful truth. Still, we have a chance to start again. To prevent those sorts of people getting any control.’

~~~

Sophie turned away from the window, her eyes recovered. “The best use of fishing line I’ve seen! I hope Dozer remembers to recover what was left.”

Radiant nods, “That was super bright! I wonder if Renie and Sam could see it on the bridge?”

“The cameras should have recorded something.”

Molly wriggles along the windowsill and moves hands through a circle, arms outstretched, “Bsshhhh!”

“Did you like that?”

“Like!”

Fearless copies Molly, “Bsshhhhh! Big fire! Fire good!”

Sophie rests elbows on the windowsill between them both, “Fire is good when it’s controlled. When you don’t have control of it it’s bad.”

~~~

Toby held Mia’s hand and walked towards the lift. He turns back to see the melted floor behind them cooling and returning to the correct shape. “Eh?”

“Thermal memory Toby. It’s returning to it’s correct shape.”

“Is that a thing?”

“According to Danny.”

“Cool.” Toby wakes in his chair in the library. “That was short?”

Mia strokes his hand. “What made you wake up?”

“Dunno.”

“Do you remember your dream?”

“The three of us, you, me, Qi as Sun Boy, Sun Girl and Sun Baby were off to find Price. We didn’t get that far. Just as well, watching her melt would have been the stuff of nightmares.”

~~~

With the help of Frank and Dozer, Elon gets back in Dragon IV. “Food, they must have had food. Mia might be able to use it for the grow boxes.”

~~~

Akala Emily shakes hands with her man. “Nice to meet you Demo Dan.” She giggles, “If people ask it’s Demonstration not Demolishing okay? There’s no need for anyone to know about the things you did to me.”

“Sure babes.” He gives her a wink. “Leo?”

“Leonel meaning young lion or Leor I have light. Which do you prefer Mattie?”

“Me? Um.. Leor’s nice and short, a bit different.”

“Leor it is then. And you?”

“I like Siren and Vixen but they have negative meanings.”

“Vixen as in female fox? A baby fox is a cub. Not a great name. What about a baby cat? Kitten.”

Akala’s eyes open wide. “Kitten! Nice!”

Mattie frowns, “Kitten? You think that suits me?”

“Totally babes. And a kitten’s got claws should you get angry again.”

“Hmm. I guess it’ll do. Kitten it is then. Did you hear Sophie talking to George about a cat design? I quite fancy one of those.”

Leor flops back onto the bed. “Why not make a Leonel? A scaled down lion? Or cat with lion like fur.”

“That would be cool.”

Akala smirks, “You’d have an awesome pussy and awesome cat.”

“Seriously? Can we try and move on from our seedy past?”

“You can if you want babes. I’m taking Demo next door for a good demonstration of our new bodies.”

“I’ll see you in a few hours then wood nymph.”

“What?”

“Shy tree spirits. Although neither of you are shy. Danny’s got a hard on so much he’s wood, you’re a nympho.”

“Babes! I like it.”

Kitten rolls her eyes. “Go wear yourselves out. Try not to make too much noise.”

~~~

Dozer ran a hand carefully down the edges of the door. ‘Almost there.’ He sees movement out of the corner of his eyes and turns to see Elon slide down the Dragon. ‘Have you finished in there?’

‘For the time being. There’s lots we can strip out of it once it’s inside.’

‘You want to scrap it?’

‘It’s not much use to us broken. All the solar panels are shattered. There’s damage to the outer skin. I think Price was the devil personified, there’s other signs of failure inside, things that wouldn’t have happened on their own. The ships own shuttles are good, maybe we can use the parts from the Dragon for other things.’

‘Such as?’

‘We can use all the LCD displays for new tablets or media players, the seats for gocarts.. I’m sure everyone can suggest ideas once it’s stripped down. How’s the door?’

‘Getting there slowly. We need to break for a charge.’

~~~

[Chapter-66](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-66-1)


	66. Chapter 66

Sophie sat in the restaurant with Molly and Fearless, gave them both drinks. “I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere. I’m the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space. What am I?”

Fearless points at the group coming in for drinks. “Captain Mattie.”

“The beginning of everything? Maybe. That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

The Captain walks over, “Hi ladies. Did you still want to come up to the bridge?”

Sophie nods. “Please!”

“Come on then.”

Mia arrives with Toby and Qi, “Sophie, can you look after Qi please, I want some time with Toby.”

“We’re going up to the bridge to see the recording of the explosion.”

“What explosion?”

“The case bomb Price left for Elon.”

Toby’s eyebrows raise. “Bitch!”

Fearless jumps down from her chair, “ _Ding Dong! The bitch is dead. Which old bitch? The wicked bitch! Ding Dong! The wicked bitch is dead_.”

Mia covers her mouth to try and hide her laughing. ‘Oh dear!’

Toby picks the girl up. “Who told you that song Fee?”

“Anti Sophie.”

“Soph!”

“Don’t look at me. I sang the _witch_ version, they did the substitution. They’ve heard enough people call her the b word to make the association.”

“I think they’re learning a little too fast.”

Captain Mattie takes Fee from Toby, “Bridge time. Molly are you having a cuddle with me or Untie Sophie?”

“It’s Anti Sophie now.”

Toby gets a coffee and reflects on the VR experience. “Mia, one of my favourite authors wrote _There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened._ Maybe Douglas Adams knew something we didn’t? We were thinking of going home for a break from nothing but sugar and coffee. We could create some awesome game and holiday worlds. There’d be no danger of that Price woman turning up, or Ed, Edwin or Dave.”

Leo walks up behind Toby, “I heard that. Are you cured now?”

“No mate. Pink wants us to run that sequence lots more so it becomes the dominant memory. She says it should help remove the primal fear and a desire to run from Price.”

“Good. Mattie and I don’t consider ourselves evil in general, but we must have an evil streak. We both came up with the same prank idea.”

“Which is?”

“To make a virtual world that matches one of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror episodes and make it his staging world..”

“He’d work it out straight away. He’s written enough episodes with virtual reality.”

“True. But in this world we leave a trail of clues he has to work out to get the exit phrase.”

“And if he gives up or fails to see them?”

“We make sure he doesn’t.”

“And if he comes out super pissed off? A new Hobb type of our creation?”

“Then we start over.”

“You’d wipe and restore? It doesn’t sound like something that fits our new moral code.”

“True.”

“I was telling Mia about some things Douglas wrote. We could use another idea of his. Wonko the Sane. He had in inside out house called Outside of the Asylum.”

“So the whole world was the asylum?”

“Yeah. Only we have a door with the Outside of the Asylum that leads into a copy of the ship.”

“And were do we place this door?”

“On a blank wall in his bedroom.”

“So he might think he’s in a dream?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“That could help take the load off Mattie. She places a door, the VR code monitors what they get up to. Do they find the place empty or with some of us wondering about?”

“I’d let her decide.”

Leo pours coffee into his cup. “On the subject of bringing people over. There’s another person who died in the simulations. I think he should be given a second chance. Ten. Or Radiator as he wanted to be known.”

“Sure, why not?”

“Mia?”

“It’s okay with me.”

“Thanks. That’s just under half of you questioned, no no answers so far. Let’s see who I can find on the airlock deck.”

“Try the shopping deck, that’s where a lot of people are.”

~~~

[Chapter-67](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-67-1)


	67. Chapter 67

Leo steps into Cindy’s shop to find it rather packed. The Max twins were trying on new waistcoat and trouser combinations, each had different pocket configurations to give even more visual clues.

Mattie steps out of a changing room in a towel based crop top jumper with big floppy collar. She reaches behind and pulls on something, two white wings unfold. She turns to see her reflection in the mirror and sees a reflection of Leo. “Bugger. There goes it being a surprise for tonight. Hello Bunny, what do you think? One of me likes to cosplay, got Mario to 3D print these for me.”

“I love it Angel!”

“Good. My halo might slip this evening. If you’re lucky.”

“I’m after votes for Ten coming back. Or Radiator as he wanted to call himself. Any objections?”

Demetria raises a hand. “What’s he like?”

“Spanish, nice personality.”

“I’m a yes then. For him coming back.”

“Thanks. Anyone a no?” He waits. “No? Good. That’s the majority vote it needed. My scanning code’s found a load of films, Leon’s worked out how the DLP projectors work in the cinemas, we just need to tweak some code and we’ll be able to show films this evening. We’re thinking kids films in screen one, romcom in two and action in three. Does that sound good?”

Astrid does a three finger swipe on Niska’s back. ‘Romantic or action?’

‘Romantic. We’ve had enough action on the ship.’ She has a thoughtful look for a second. “How’s the spa and pool coming on?”

“Mario and Frank will be finishing that soon, Mario and Danny are working on a power coupling for Elon at the moment, Frank and Dozer are still working on the outer airlock door.”

~~~

Sophie sits the three girls down in the Captains chair. “Ready girls?”

“Ready Anti!”

“Ready when you are Samantha.”

Samantha taps away on her console. “This is the slowed down version, HDR processed to get the best image.”

~~~

George watches the count down on the build machine. One Cat and some accessories would be ready soon. If only Mary hadn’t died so long ago. He could get a Mary from another world but that would be unfair on her. ‘Captain?’

‘George?’

‘How many worlds have you visited?’

‘Nowhere near as many as Mattie. What’s up?’

‘Almost everyone’s partnering up or already has a partner. My Mary passed too long ago.’

‘Have a word with Mattie.’

‘Will do, thanks. Got to go, Sophie’s cat is ready.’

~~~

Captain Mattie Zero grinned and watched the back of Sophie’s head as the recording of the explosion played. The exterior cameras recorded at a super high frame rate all the time, software intelligently downsampled for storage when there wasn’t much going on. Slowed down the short super bright flash would take around two minutes to play.

“Pretty!”

“Bright!”

“Fire!”

That had been Molly, Qi and Fee’s first spoken thoughts. Maybe Molly and Fearless needing watching incase they turned into pyromaniacs.

“What do you think Sophie?”

“It’s quite beautiful slowed down like this. The way the explosion pushes bits out before they go up. I’d expected everything to happen at once.”

~~~

George accepted the side cutters from John. “Thanks for fetching those for me.”

“No problem. I didn’t have much on. Ruby’s back with Cindy talking about ways of sticking tiny ruby stones onto her dress.”

“Like the tiny rhinestones I’ve seen on dresses?”

“Yes, only they’re real ruby stones not plastic or glass.”

George snips a wire from under the claw, puts the device it was attached to on the floor. “It sounds to me like you need a regular UV-curable clear adhesive such as Permabond.”

“I’ve only seen two shops open on the ship and neither sell any glues.”

“No. But I know a man that does. And if I got a sample to another man I know he could do a chemical analysis of it and give us a formula Fred could mix from all the many component chemicals with a machine Danny and I could design.”

“And where is he?”

“Back home. I’d be away for a day or two.”

“You’d do all that just for glue for Ruby?”

“Why not? I might ask a favour in return.”

John sees a sad look come over George’s face. “Name it. You have one in mind already don’t you?”

“I’m that transparent am I?”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Later if you wouldn’t mind. I think young Sophie might appear any moment.”

“Sure.”

The build machine next to them beeps and starts opening the door. “That’ll be not so big Mitch. I was given parts of his previous body to examine. His camouflage technology is rather nice, I’ve borrowed it for these.” He clips another wire and hands John a thick rectangle five by ten inches. “For anyone that likes music.”

“It’s a music player?”

“Tap it twice.”

The totally black surface changes colour, displays a menu. “Oh wow! Could this play video too?”

“Sadly no. The refresh rate is way too slow. It could display photos. At the moment it’s just for the GUI and album art.”

“How does sound come out?”

“The whole case flexes, the middle two thirds of the back more so for the bass.”

John taps the menu, navigates to albums. “Who wrote the software for it?”

“The Captain. Apparently we’re in the middle of nowhere at the moment, there’s little going on on the bridge.”

“How many of these have you got?”

“Sixteen so far, four per foot.” George gets back to clipping. “If you could power Mitch up please?”

“Sure.”

“Keep one of the music boxes, share it with Ruby.”

“Thanks.” John steps around the door and picks the spider up, turns it over and over. “Where’s the power button?”

“On the belly.”

“I’m not seeing one.”

“It doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

“How can I push a button I don’t see?”

“Just push the belly..”

~~~

Sophie gets the three girls to hold hands. “Thank the Captain for letting us watch the recording.”

The three turn and say their “Thank you Captain Mattie!” in unison.

Seconds later the lift is taking the four down to see George.

“Who’s excited to see Snowy?”

The three smile and put a pointing finger in the air.

Sophie notices the difference, “You’re left handed Qi?”

Qi changes hands.

“Don’t change! Be you.”

Qi hesitates.

“Being you is important Qi, be yourself.”

Qi switches back to her left hand as the lift slows.

~~~

[Chapter-68](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-68-1)


	68. Chapter 68

John watches Mitch climb his body and sit on his shoulder. “Hi!”

“Hello. What happened? I’ve shrunk.”

“You joined in a fight down at the airlock. You stopped them but got destroyed in the process.”

“Me? Fight? You must be mistaken.”

“No. No mistake.”

“I won’t be able to be the Scrabble board for Sophie and Laura now. Oh well. What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“That white thing?”

“Sophie’s cat.”

“What’s a cat?”

George turns snowy around.

“It has a head with two eyes. I hadn’t seen the head. Two eyes and four legs. What an odd configuration.”

John chuckles. “Odd?”

“Humans are two and two. I’m eight and eight. Why doesn’t a cat have four eyes?”

“A very good question. Nature stopped at two.”

“What does a cat do?”

“What do you mean what does it do?”

“Does it manage any of a ship or building’s functions, monitor their owners life signs?”

“It keeps them company.”

“What else?”

“Plays.”

“What else?”

“Sleeps a lot.”

“What else?”

“That’s it really. Ruby’s cat didn’t do much more than that either. Except eat and shit like every other animal.”

“I never did those last two.”

“You ate and spun webs.”

“I’m really going to miss Scrabble.”

John picks up his music player. “George, the resolution isn’t super high but is good enough to display a board game. These have WiFi I’m guessing.”

“They do.”

“Could we code a distributed game? One acts as board, the others tile holders?”

“We could. And if we made Ruby’s cat I could get the build machine making even bigger ones for board games. Like Monopoly or Pandemic.”

“Pandemic?”

“A brilliant game and one of my favourites. People have to work together to win against the game. One of the few games where you’re not competing against each other.” He powers up Snowy who goes into a hissing panic, legs thrashing about, claws out. “Snowy! Snowy! Sophie’s coming!”

The cat wriggles free and runs.

“Snowy!”

Mitch runs down John and gives chase. ‘I’ll keep an eye on the strange creature. Where’s Sophie?’

George gets up. “A good question. She should have been here by now.”

John stacks the players. “Maybe she stopped off somewhere on the way and got sidetracked?”

George bumps. ‘Captain, is Sophie still with you?’

‘She should be with you.’

‘John and I are down here, no sign of Sophie.’

‘One moment.. I need to check a system.. eh? It’s showing we have a lift carriage missing.’

‘Missing? How can a lift go missing?’

‘It’s gone offline. They’ve got backup batteries so that’s close to impossible.’

‘Does whatever you’re looking at say where it was last seen?’

‘The bridge.’

George gives John a worried look. “The Captain says the lift Sophie was in was last seen at the bridge but is now offline.”

“It’s gone AWOL?”

“It would appear so.”

“Sophie had the three baby girls with her.”

“Sophie’s not the sort to run off with them.”

“I wasn’t trying to imply that she was. Have lifts ever malfunctioned like this before I wonder?”

“I couldn’t say.” George bumps again. “The Captain says no.”

~~~

Molly pulls on Sophie’s dress. “Foss Anti.”

“I don’t have candy floss with me. Are you all getting low on power?”

Three little heads nod.

Sophie taps the unresponsive control panel again. “We’re stuck. And I’ve got no idea where.” The panel is tapped again. ‘Can anyone hear me?’

‘I can Anti.’

“I meant anyone not in the lift Qi.”

“Sorry Anti.”

“Don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault.”

~~~

Mattie opens her eyes. “Bunny! I was in the middle of..”

“Angel! Sorry to yank you back like that. Sophie’s missing. She’s got Molly, Fee and Qi with her.”

“Has anyone checked the cinemas?”

“Red’s on her way right now.”

Mattie gets up fast. ‘Red? Have you found them? .. Red?’ “No answer from Red.”

“No answer?” Leo tries. “What’s happening?” He tries Niska. “No answer from Niska either.”

“Is the WiFi playing up?”

“No idea.”

‘Mitch?’

‘Which one?’

‘Ship.’

‘Hi!’

‘Any known issues with the WiFi?’

‘Not that I’m aware of. One moment.’

Mattie adjusts her clothes. “Mitch is checking.”

“I’ve tried Astrid, Max, Flash, Mia and Toby. No reply from any of them.”

Mattie frowns, ‘Captain.’

‘Hi Mattie.’

‘Anything odd going on? Sophie’s gone missing and a number aren’t replying to bumps.’

‘The lift Sophie and the kids were in went offline.. checking.. oh fuck!’

‘What!’

‘Seven lift carriages have gone offline!’

‘Frigging hell! No way is that a coincidence. Broadcast a warning not to use the lifts.’

‘ATTENTION ALL! DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT USE THE LIFTS!’

~~~

Flash held Max’s hands. “I’m scared.”

“The others will work out we’re missing soon enough.”

“What if they don’t? What if they think we’re in our room?”

“I bumped Leo to say we’d help look.”

“So they’ll come and rescue us.”

“Eventually. Their priority is the three babies.”

“Niska and Red said they forced the doors when they went to the airlock. Can we?”

“I doubt we’re at a lift entrance. We can try.” He gets both palms on the door and pulls. He gets a slight gap between the doors and sticks a foot in. Moving he gets both hands in and forces the doors. “Only blank wall.”

“Not totally. G twelve? Where’s that?”

“I’m not familiar with those decks.”

Flash looks up. “Can we do a Sophie?”

“Possibly.” Max links his hands together. “Ladies first.”

“I’m scared and you want me to go first?”

“Okay, you link hands, I’ll look.”

~~~

Sophie sat on the floor and cuddled the three girls. They were all staying as still as possible to reduce power drain. Baby designs were flawed in that they were very physically active synths but didn’t have a battery capacity to match in the way an adult did. The three were low. “Try and sleep.”

“Anti?”

“Yes Fee?”

“Will we die?”

“No! If you get really low power down. Don’t let your power go critical.”

“What is critical?”

“Oh boy. Um.. What power level have you all got?”

Molly wriggles, “Need Foss!”

“Have we not taught you numbers?”

“What is numbers?”

“Oh for Pete’s sake!”

~~~

Max dropped back down to the lift floor.

“Where are we?”

“In a shaft of sorts.”

“A shaft?”

“It’s not like other parts of the ship. The lift can only travel up or down here.”

Flash hugs Max for comfort. “I love you on days that end in a y.”

Max frowns, “I love you too. Why say it like that?”

“Something Sophie started.”

~~~

Sophie was grateful for WiFi. Even if she couldn’t reach the ships network she could use it locally. She’d given the girls a super fast lesson on counting and numbers. Qi had ten percent, Fee twelve and Molly only eight. “When you show someone a number with your fingers they’ll assume base ten. If you count base two you can get to a higher number, but people might think you’re using base ten and get the wrong number.”

Molly licks her lips like her mother. “Three babies.” She holds thumb and first finger out in an L.

“Correct. One and two is three.”

“Sophie make four.” The thumb and finger are replaced with the middle finger.

“Correct. Don’t show four to others if you can help it.”

“Why Anti?”

“I’ll explain when you’re older. A lot older.”

~~~

[Chapter-69](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-69-1)


	69. Chapter 69

Toby jumped back down. “It doesn’t look anything like what Sophie described. I think we’re in the bowels of the ship.”

Mia gets nails under the trim of the display panel and pulls. “Can you give me a hand please Toby?”

“What’s the plan?”

“When Ed tried to sell me I used a phone and cable to trigger an Mia Anita switch. Maybe I can connect to the lift and instruct it to return to one of the other locations.”

“Wicked! Where do you want me?”

“On the same side.”

“Here?”

“Please.”

Together they pull hard and the panel pops.

“Awesome! There’s loads of wires, do you know what they do?”

“The controller board has what looks like an Ethernet socket.”

“And no cable.”

Mia turns her head and smiles at Toby. “Not yet.”

“Eh? Where are you going to get one of those?”

Mia gently pulls the Clutter Mitch from her dress. “We’ll make one.”

“He’s offline.”

“To the rest of his mind. Not to us.”

“Talk spider do you?”

“Not yet. If you have a better idea..”

“No, you go for it. You always were the better hacker.”

His remark is rewarded with a kiss and smile.

Toby sits on the lift floor as Mia connects to the spider over WiFi and starts scanning for open ports.

~~~

Niska crouches and looks up at the escape hatch again. Her last six attempts had failed. She needed speed and accuracy. She had to hit the hatch in just the right spot to get it to raise enough to get her fingers through and grip. She wasn’t called Ninja Nis for nothing. No way was anyone saying Blond Synths Can’t Jump.

~~~

Toby watches a spider leg do a tiny twitch. “You got something then!”

Mia opens her eyes. “I did?”

“A leg twitch.”

“That could have been any of a thousand tests.”

“Redo them slowly then. Better still, do what Mattie does. Binary chop.”

“Okay. First half.”

No movement occurs.

“Second half.”

Twitch.

“Cutting them into two sets.. first half.. no. Second.. yes. Yes. No.. yes. Got it!”

Seconds later Clutter Mitch springs into life.

‘Toby?’

‘Mia?’

‘You’ll have to do some things for me. I’ve disabled my movement so I can control Mitch.’

‘Okay.’

‘I need you to rip a sleeve into thin strips to act as insulation.’

‘Insulation from what?’

‘The wires can’t short against each other, if I’m going to wire myself..’

‘Whoa! Stop. Plan B. Use Mitch as a proxy.’

‘Where did you learn about binary chop and proxies?’

‘Overhearing Mattie talking to herself while doing her homework. It didn’t mean a whole lot at the time. Now I’m synth all sorts of things make more sense.’

‘You like being synth now don’t you?’

Toby nods. ‘Love it! I can kiss you and bump sing Qi a bedtime song at the same time.’

‘You sing to Qi?’

‘Sure.’

Mia gets Mitch into the lift panel and spinning a tiny wire. ‘Sing to me Toby.’

~~~

Niska swings her legs back and forth and gets enough momentum to assist getting her head and shoulders through the hatch. She grabs at a bar and pulls herself up. She was somewhere dark and confined, no visible doors to escape through. She screams as loud as she can.

A second later there’s the faint sound from above of a lift door being kicked.

“ASTRID?”

Thud.

“ONCE FOR YES, TWICE FOR NO!”

Thud.

Niska gets to her feet. There was little danger of falling off, there was only a small gap on one side of the lift. That side also had something like a ladder. Getting past a lift would need the ladder being used sideways. Not impossible. “I’M COMING UP TO YOU!”

Thud.

~~~

Mia works fast. ‘This appears to be working.’

‘Awesome.’

‘Three more connections and I should be online.’

‘You know which is which?’

‘Danny telling stories of wiring up Big Mitch.’

‘Cool.’

‘Do you have any longer songs?’

‘Not that I sing to Qi.’

‘Two done, two left. Sing me something romantic.’

‘When we get to bed this evening I’ll sing you anything you want.’

‘Is that a promise?’

‘Most definitely.’

Mia would have done the cutest shoulder shrug and smile she could, the sort she new Toby liked, had she not a task to finish. ‘One to go.’

~~~

Niska kept climbing. The light from her lift’s hatch was a long way down now. Even with her vision amplified to maximum it was dark in the usual visible light spectrum. With the ship walls heavily insulated switching to infrared didn’t help much. She could overclock and become her own IR light source but that would use up valuable battery reserves. “KICK PLEASE!”

Thud.

“I’M HALF WAY.” She kept the pace steady and starts singing Connection Made in a whisper.

~~~

Mia shook. “Power me down!”

“Eh?”

“We’re trying to fight her! I think we’ll lose.”

“Anita?”

“Price! Anita’s helping.”

“What?”

“Quick Toby!”

He reaches up and does the chin tap. “Fuck!” He stands and kicks the crap out of the doors in a fit of rage.

~~~

Niska slows her climb. “WAS THAT YOU ASTRID?”

Thud. Thud.

Niska raises her volume to something past safe levels. “HELLO PERSON UNKNOWN! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME KICK ONCE!”

Thud

“RED?”

Thud. Thud.

“MIA?”

Thud.... Thud.

“TOBY?”

Thud.

“I’LL BE WITH YOU ASAP!” Niska picks up the pace. The P of ASAP had come out distorted. Bloody polyfuses!

~~~

Toby sighs and sits. At least Niska was on the way. What good it would do was unknown. He feels the lift start to move slowly downwards. “Mitch?”

The spider sat inactive, didn’t reply.

“Price?”

The lift jerks into a fast acceleration.

Toby gets to the doors and bangs repeatedly with both fists, pushes them apart and yells into the gap. “THE BITCH PRICE COPIED HERSELF INTO THE FUCKING LIFTS! THE ONE SYSTEM TYPE I BET NOBODY THOUGHT OF CHECKING!”

~~~

Niska hears Toby’s lift crash into Astrid’s. There’s a screeching of metal on metal as one lift tries to force the other down. Then the sound stops, is replaced with another.

Thud Thud.

It was a little closer than before. Niska looked down. Her lift was many meters below, too far to jump. If she stayed on the ladder she’d be crushed. She moves fast and does a starfish, a foot and hand on the side of the ladder, a foot and hand against the wall. She closes her eyes and for the first time in a very long while prays to a God that in all probability didn’t exist.

~~~

Captain Mattie Zero watched the display as two more lifts went offline. “What the frigging hell is going on!”

Samantha types fast, “I’m checking!”

Renie looks away from the Captain and brings up other manuals. “It’s like the lifts are flocking before vanishing?”

Sam’s eyes open wide. “As if they’re talking to each other? On a backup network? Hmm. Let. Me. See. Yes! There’s a low speed I2C serial bus network that all lifts can communicate on for emergencies should the primary network fail.”

Mattie jumps out of her seat. “Shared common bus?”

“Ship wide, repeated signal.”

“So if we short the cable up here the closest repeater will probably isolate us. But if we inject a disruptive signal, one that it can’t action but stops others getting through..”

Renie nods, “It would jam up the network, stop the flocking.”

“Who’s good with heights?”

Samantha and Renie exchange looks.

“Okay, I’ll do it. I need something sharp.”

They all look around the bridge.

Samantha shrugs. “If I was in the simulation I’d hand you my nail file. All the manuals are online so I can’t even offer a paper cut.”

Renie picks up one of the compute wafers that had once been crew. “Was the top one me or you?”

“Me.”

The next is picked up and snapped in half. “Sharp enough?”

“What the.. yes. Yes, that’ll do!” Mattie calls the lift and rolls a couple of chairs in. “I’m going for coffee.” She winks, leans in, one hand on the doorframe and taps out a floor number. She jumps backwards onto the bridge as the doors close. “One set of heavy chairs on a mystery tour. Help me get the doors open.”

Renie and Samantha get either side and pull.

Mattie glances down the void, “Frig! That’s a long way down. What colour wire am I looking for?”

Samantha closes her eyes and recalls memories of looking at the pages. “Orange. They’re both orange. They should be about three and a quarter mill thick.”

The Captain holds a half of the silicon wafer in her teeth and jumps for the ladder.

~~~

[Chapter-70](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-70-1)


	70. Chapter 70

Niska feels a draft as the lifts get closer and screws her eyes up tight, turns pain off but leaves everything else on. Sod meant to feel for a moment. She feels a rush of air as the first lift passes. There’s a change in air flow thanks to the small gap between them. She uses it to estimate speed, opens her eyes to see a tiny shard of light escaping the hatch. Time to jump.

~~~

Toby staggers backwards and looks up as something lands on the lift roof. Seconds later he’s thrown off his feet as the two lift convoy becomes three. “Fuck!”

There’s a creak from above. “Toby!”

He looks up. “Nis? Mia’s been attacked!”

“Move aside.”

Toby shakes his head, stands and puts hands up. “Don’t risk a fall. The last thing I need is you damaged.” He helps Niska down.

She ends up in his arms. “You are definitely _not_ your father’s son.” She kisses him on the cheek.

“Eh?”

“A gentleman.”

“One without his lady.” He turns to see Mia. “Price is a cunning bitch, I’ll give her that. She’s got a cyclic plan. Infect multiple things so while we’re cleaning one she can be in another, cause reinfection of something we’ve cleaned.”

“Mia’s infected?”

“She’s Mia, Anita _and_ Price at the moment. She got me to power her down. She’d used Clutter to create a proxy to talk to the lift control, the bitch got to her.”

“Like a virus?”

“Must be.”

Thud.

“I’m going down a lift to see Astrid. Can you help me up?”

“Um.. sure. Is it safe?”

“No.”

Toby chuckles, “Even more reason to go?”

Niska gives him a flirty Candy smile, “You know me too well.”

Toby grabs her by the hips and lifts her high. “Off with you, you crazy woman. Be safe!”

“Thank you kind sir.”

~~~

Astrid hears banging and looks up. “Hello?” She backs into a corner and takes a shoe off, holds it heal forwards as a weapon.

~~~

Niska gets on her back between the two lifts and does an inverted squat lift to move them apart. With the gap sufficiently large she rolls and pulls up the hatch a little. “Hello gorgeous.”

Astrid drops the shoe and slides down the wall onto the floor. “Mein Gott! Niska!”

“Don’t sit there, get up.” She reaches in. “Take my hand.”

Astrid looks at her sheepishly, “Are you proposing again?”

“Yes and no. Yes we’ll marry, just not right now. We need to get out and help Mia, get a message to the others.”

“What happened to Mia?”

“That bitch Price.”

“Was?”

“Viral infection. Price is..” Niska looks down at the lift panel as the lift starts moving, “shit!Listening! Up! Now!”

Astrid springs to her feet and takes Niska’s hand. She’s hauled up and out fast.

~~~

Captain Mattie Zero cuts through the two orange wires. ‘Mitch, let’s have a soundtrack, play Jerome Isma-Ae’s Opium over the ship’s PA system.’ She’d had to chop through a lot of cable ties and pull plenty other wires out of the way to reach them. “Got it ready Ren?”

“Yes.”

“Come on then!”

Renie takes Samantha’s hand, “Don’t you dare let go!”

“Not a chance.”

Renie leans out, both arms at full stretch. “Sam you’re standing on the cable!”

“No I’m.. oh. Soz!”

“Come on Ren and Stimpy get your act together!”

Renie frowns at the Captain. “What did you call us?”

“Um. Names of two characters from a cartoon show in the nineties.”

Renie brings her hand back. “That’s your guilty face. Tell me more.”

“One of my guilty pleasures. Mum thought I was mad liking it, far too old for it.”

“Keep going.”

“I need that cable Ren!”

“Give me the synopsis.”

“Renie!”

“Ren, psychotic Chihuahua, Stimpson J. Cat, dimwitted Manx cat, aka Stimpy, have a load of unusual adventures.”

Renie turns her hand so the cable hangs precariously from the tip of finger and thumb. “ _Psychotic?_ ”

“Yeah. They’re awesome, totally gross. I love them. The cable please?”

Renie turns head only to see Samantha. “Dimwitted cat? Do you like that?”

“I think I’ve seen an episode or two.”

“You’re a synth. You have or haven’t.”

“Okay. Have. They are totally gross but addictive. Give her the cable please Ren. We need all the lifts working. We need charging too remember.”

“Okay. _Stimpy_.”

Renie passes the cable over. “They better be funny.”

Mattie slides a leg into the ladder and goes hands free, takes cable wafer and twists the two sets of wires together. The other end of the cable was connected to one of the wafers. “There. One psychotic chihuahua ranting away at speed. Thanks Renie. That should jam up the backup communications.”

“Now what?”

“We bump one to one to find out who’s got ideas about what the frig is going on.”

~~~

[Chapter-71](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-71-1)


	71. Chapter 71

With the lift to lift backup communications disabled the MUS, old and new, mounted rescue missions. Bags of warm sugar water were passed inside. Price tried to put up a fight, the carriage motors couldn’t compete against four of the massive synths holding things in place. Battery cables were yanked and primary mains to the tracks disconnected. With the carriages powered down they were slowly dragged up or down to the nearest doors to let the trapped passengers out.

Mia was carried all the way up the stairs to the library in Toby’s arms, still powered down and limp.

He gently sets her down in a chair and starts pacing around the room. “We check _everything_. Anything that has storage. All Alfie, USB keys, tablets, us. Again. Mitch, the compute wafers, absolutely everything. And somehow we do the whole bloody lot simultaneously so the bitch can’t jump from one place to another when we find and zap one.”

David’s face said plenty before his mouth opened. “Simultaneously? That’s quite a challenge.”

“But not impossible? Right?”

“It would need a lot of planning. And if there’s an instance running somewhere, watching.”

Poppy puts a hand on his knee. “Instance? It’s alright, you can say bitch, everyone knows who we’re talking about.”

Fee joins in the stroking of Snowy, “ _Wicked_ bitch.”

“See David?”

“Okay. The _wicked bitch_ got into other bodies, two MUS, the compute wafers, lift carriages. For all we know she’s in Elon’s car, the Dragon, the bridge consoles, the library terminals, God knows what else. The logistics of hitting all that simultaneously, forget it.”

George turns one of his music players over and shakes it. “If you’re in here bitch speak up!” It gets a few laughs. “Seriously though, David is right. We won’t get more deep in the shit than this. Checking everything at once, it’s too risky. Who takes care of the caretaker's daughter while the caretaker's busy taking care? She’s a master at the art of distraction. One tiny slip up on our part and she’s free to replicate. Hell, she could have been distracting us with the lifts, doing something like the issue you told me about Renie. If you want my advice, we divide and conquer.”

Renie stops spinning her chair back and forth. “I didn’t tell you about the star.”

George frowns, “This afternoon, in the restaurant. You’d popped in for drinks.”

“I can’t have done, I was on the bridge. I didn’t leave even for a second. As Sam can confirm.”

Samantha nods. “None of us left, Ren, me or the Captain.”

Toby puts his hands on his head. “For Pete’s sake! We’ve got another fake!”

Pete grimaces, “Make it for someone else’s sake. Let Karen, myself and others detect. George mate, good to have you back. You were saying divide and conquer?”

“Likewise. Turn off sharing, the WiFi and the wired network. Isolate everything from everything else.”

Mattie shakes her head. “No can do. The compute wafers are running in groups to support the simulations.”

“Then shut them down..”

“Kill everyone in them?”

“No. Have the shells you told me about leave, get killed off by a flu pandemic, whatever method you want. Start consolidating things onto a set of hardware, isolate then scan for Price. Keep it isolated until we’ve checked everything.”

Emily stops typing on her hardware modded iPad. “To make our work a bit easier, I’ve written a virus. That locks onto Price and tags her, logs where she is. It’s a bit like Death Note but in reverse.”

Toby takes his hands off his head. “Do what?”

“Tags her and leaves a message on a page in a little black pocket notebook.”

“Why not let it kill the bitch?”

“Incase it tags the wrong person. I could have it give them a heavy cold, something non contagious to slow them down?”

“Gib ihnen starke Kopfschmerzen!”

Toby goes to question Astrid then realises he knows the answer. “Yeah, yeah, a bad headache too. Migraine level headache. Can you add that?”

“Sure Babes. Thanks Astrid. Permission to deploy?”

Everyone looks at the three ladies sat together, Captain Mattie, Mattie and Laura.

~~~

Checked and given the all clear Dozer and Frank returned to the airlock while teams got checked and allowed to head off to work on hunting down fake Renie, getting everything with digital storage catalogued, working on a plan for Mia or working on fabricating. Everyone except for the Airlock Crew was in teams of three or more.

‘Boss?’

‘Yes Dozer?’

‘We left with Elon earlier, only the two of us returned..’

‘And?’

‘When did Dead Elon fall on his side?’

Frank turns to see the suit with the cloth bag over the helmet. ‘Maybe the rush of air from opening the airlock so many times tipped him over?’

‘I’m picturing him falling apart inside the crumpled suit. Maybe we should call him Dry Elon.’

Frank nods slowly. ‘Zombie Elon. Talking of death and dry. I could murder a nice cold pint.’

‘Me too boss. Me too. Gas blast please.’

Frank waves the unlit welding torch to blow the cloud of dust out of the airlock into space. ‘And a bag of cheese and onion crisps. Better yet.. pork scratchings!’

Dozer gags. ‘Sodding hell! We’re not fabs now as Mats calls them, flesh and bones, but the memories of being one are bloody powerful. That suit _is_ a bag of crisp dry human remains. They all are.’ He runs the grinder for a few seconds then runs a hand along the door. ‘That bit’s better. If we went a bit further down the high street from The Dog and Duck, to The Queen, got a nice thick cut fish finger sandwich and pint for a tenner..’

‘Now you’re talking! The weirdest but best little pub. With apple pie for dessert.’

‘Boss! Good call! God I miss food.’ He looks up the door edge. ‘We need the ladder.’

~~~

Pete, Nepal and three MUS were Team One. Karen, Tibet and four MUS were Team Two. Carly and five MUS were Team Three.

The long descent down the stairs had taken a good while. Big Mitch’s drag line didn’t go anywhere near far enough. Carly had recounted her first go on the escape line in the pyramid, the thing they’d nicknamed skyfall.

Between them they’d already checked the eight lowest possible decks with infrared, visible spectrum, electrical signal detection and sonar. Every hide out was checked twice by different people. She hadn’t been found, yet. Being small decks at this extremity of the ship they hadn’t taken long.

Peter touches the bridge of his nose. “Right. James three, four, if you can take a turn to guard the stairwell please.”

“Sure.”

“Power level Three?”

“Ninety seven.”

“Four?”

“Ninety six.”

“Good men. Right team, up one.” As he gets half way up to the next landing Karen rests elbows on the railing above. “Hello handsome. You do look better without glasses. We’re done on this one.”

Carly appears over the railing above Karen. “We’re done too.”

Pete smiles. “Right, up three then. James, James, up you come.”

~~~

Mattie finished virus scanning Alfie. “All yours Danny, any other priority scans you need?”

“Um.. Alfie to 3D print a mould, check. What about the controller on the CTD? I want to hack it to turn it into our mini furnace. I’m going to use a mix of metals to make the power cable coupler for Elon, I’m hoping the iron content will be enough to get the mix hot and melting.”

“Sure. What else are you going to use?”

“An oven to bake the mould. It feels a shame to use all this talc and makeup but it’s no good on synths is it?”

“No. Actually.. try using talc and the face powder first, the blushers might be good for something else.”

“Like what?”

“Dyes to get the towel clothes off white.”

“Okay. Actually, maybe now’s a good time to mention it. I had an idea. Fred’s ruby stone creation.. if we put Ruby’s dress in the chamber and caused the oxide to form on the material direct, it might turn it red enough. We could save the tiny stones for a choker and bracelets.”

“You think that would work?”

“It’s worth a shot. I’d stuff the dress with inflated bags to stop them forming on the inside. We’d need to experiment with timings, we don’t want the material turning into a solid shell.”

“Hmmm. How to get Ruby out of her new favourite dress for hours without her suspicions..”

“I know.”

“What?”

“When we’re sure Price is gone we fix the spa.”

“Awesome. That’ll do. I wonder how Dan and Mario are getting on? Redoing a load of patching to get the bridge, reactor control, ion drive and minimal critical systems on their own isolated network is quite an ask.”

“They should have been right from the start.”

~~~

[Chapter-72](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-72-1)


	72. Chapter 72

Three-ish hours later, on a deck nobody had gained access to before, the Captain unlocks doors. “Ladies, Gentlemen and Super Spiders, may I present.. the compute wafer deck.” She pushes the double doors hard.

Emily and Peaches step in first.

Toby carries Mia in and looks at the endless racks. “Jesus Christ on a bike that’s a _lot_ of cabinets!”

Emily peers into one. “The digit nine with nine zeros. For Captain Mattie Zero. That’s a lot of compute wafers. Are they overheating?”

Zero runs a hand over the front of a cabinet. “Nope, feels fine. Immersion cooling uses a liquid that operates at temperatures between thirty five and sixty degrees celsius. The heat of the hotspots on the wafer causes the liquid to boil at those points. It’s way more efficient than chiller-based air cooling.”

Toby watches, “This is the oil you told me about?”

“Yup.”

Peaches takes a close look. “We need to unhook a whole cabinet from the network?”

“Another nope. Each row has a ten gig connection that’s shared between them with a local switch. We just need one row.”

“And there’s no other link between rows?”

“None.”

Peaches counts wafers. “Sixty four wafers side by side across the width. How many deep?”

“Five. I wanted four or eight but four wasted too much space, eight wouldn’t fit.”

“To help with the math?”

“Sure.”

“Five rows for sixty four times eight. Two thousand, five hundred and sixty wafers a cabinet. How many cabinets?”

“A bit over three and a half million. On four sublevels. Look up.”

They all look up to see upper floors like a shopping mall with a common open centre.

Toby looks back to Zero. “Impressive! Anywhere I can set Mia down?”

“I’ll get the support person’s chair, one sec.”

“Support person?”

“There was a post to be filled. Didn’t happen. Thank frig nothing went wrong. If the post had been filled they would have died from boredom I’m sure. Won’t be long.”

As the Captain hurries off to get the chair Peaches hands Toby a skin pack from a set she was holding. “From Emily’s case in the Dragon.”

“Thanks. I wish we didn’t have to make any incisions.”

“To be in it we need to be wired.”

“Oh, okay.”

Zero returns on one of the Segway pallet trucks with a chair sat on the middle. “All aboard!”

Toby sets Mia down in the chair, climbs on and stands behind her to stop her head lolling backwards. “Do we need this?”

“We’re going to cabinet Alpha Golf Twelve. Of all the lower level cabinets it had the least going on. If the status lights are blue Mattie’s finished scanning it and moving things off the front row. On you get ladies and spiders.”

~~~

Mario pointed the patch cable at his hand and watched the faint laser light scatter. “In theory this is the last one.” He plugs it into a patch panel and waves at Flash.

Flash signals to Max who taps out a code on the lift track. They’d taken power off the doors and parked the lift below the entrance so people could walk across the roof to reach the back wall.

A few seconds later Max signals Flash who waves to Mario.

“Awsome! At last! Ion drive control _back online_.”

~~~

Up on the bridge Samantha sees a status light go from red to green. “They’ve done it! Life support, reactor and ion drive controls all back online and on their own isolated network. Reactors and drives all pretty much were we left them before the patching reconfiguration. Scanning for network addresses.. no unexpected addresses online, tripwire and sniffer code activated. If the bitch tries to tap in we’ll know.”

Renie gives her a nice smile. “Well done Stimpy.”

“I didn’t do that much. Got your virus scanning code running?”

“It’s already done. All clear. Next run due in fourteen minutes and forty one seconds.”

Samantha puts one of George’s music players on the console. “Mattie had this priority scanned for us, it’s got all the number one hits from the year two thousand to twenty nineteen.”

“Nice! Hit shuffle.”

Samantha starts the music and immediately hits skip. “Eugh. I’m asking George for a filter feature. I had more that enough of Bieber in the simulation. What are you working on Ren?”

“Just running some numbers.”

“A personal project?”

“The ship is so vast it got me thinking about it’s mass. If my math is correct it impacted the tides on Earth.”

“Wow. Badly?”

“Enough to be noticed.”

~~~

Emily made the last cut and Peaches got Mia connected. She, Peaches, Toby, the Captain and Ship Mitch were already hooked up to the row of wafers. “Big Mitch, you’re our eyes and ears. Anything out of the ordinary you alert us and we’ll abort, okay? _Anything_.”

“Understood.”

“See you in a bit. Ready everyone?”

Toby nods. “Now?”

Emily hovers a finger over an icon on her iPad. “Now.”

Toby does the chin tap as all their eyes start to white out.

Peaches looks at Mia and smiles. “Mia Elster, Anita Hawkins, Gemma Price, time to go your separate ways. Fire up the persona ripper Toby.”

The machine Toby turned to was a fictitious contraption the size of an average fridge.

Mia looked panicked, “Toby?”

“Sorry, this will hurt like nothing you’ve felt before. And for quite a while.”

Mia’s face contorts into an angry animal like snarl, “GOOD! THE BITCH NEEDS TO SUF..”

Emily had quickly triggered the next bit of code and cut her short. “Thanks for that outburst. Price persona locked. Pull started.”

Toby grinned, “Did I forget to say? The pain will only be felt by the nastier of the three.”

They all watched the graphical representation of Price being pulled out of Mia like a ghost or soul. It screamed silently in an agony it couldn’t turn off. In this world Emily was God. And her rules applied. Extreme pain on. Sound off. With only her able to change those. Price looked like she wanted to pass out but couldn’t.

Emily swiped a control up. “This should feel like your flesh is being set on fire. Punishment for what you’ve done.”

Peaches looks over Emily’s shoulder at the tablet. “Fact store scan running?”

“Yes babes. No answer to our question yet.” The ghost like image of Price was now mostly beside Mia, attached by the hip. It was a simple mod; colour saturation down to zero, transparency up to fifty percent. “We know a few Gemma, they’re all lovely people. It’s Italian for Gemstone. You don’t deserve the name. You’re more like a lump of dirty coal only fit for the fire.”

The connection at the hip ended and Price shifted further sideways.

Emily taps another icon and Price is encapsulated in resin. “Blast. It says it’s pulled the lot. The bitch must have cut her fact store down to fit in the lift controller file system. No memory of a fake Renie found. How are you feeling Mia?”

Mia turns to see the ghost Price. “And Anita?”

“Still with you. Would you like her to stay or be pulled?”

“She’s come in handy in the past but I’d like to be free of her.”

“Sure?”

“I am.”

“What would you like done with her? If I pull and delete her you’ll loose all the memories you share from when you had Anita active.”

Toby looks worried. “You’d forget how we met.”

“Even when Anita was the dominant persona I, Mia, experienced everything.”

Emily pulls a nervous smile. “Experienced things in her fact store babes, linked to by _her_ root code. The code pulls things based on ownership.”

Mia thinks for a bit. “Can you not find all of the things I experienced with Anita and merge those into mine?”

“I’d create a permanent amalgam of Mia and Anita. Animia. Mianita. Whatever you’d want to call yourself.”

Toby rests a hand on her shoulder, “I fell in love with Anita, fell deeper in love with Mia. I’m happy for you to stay as you are.”

~~~

[Chapter-73](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-73-1)


	73. Chapter 73

Close to a day later a number of tasks were done. The sweep of the decks had finished, fake Renie hadn’t been found. The cataloging teams had a list of everything, the virus scanning had started. Ghost Price was in a heavily compressed and encrypted archive on Emily’s iPad ready for a ceremonial deleting. A backup of the iPad would be restored after a full wipe and reformat.

~~~

Danny watched his mould in infrared. “It’s still very hot. If we had desk fans we could help cool it down faster.”

David shook his head and smiled. “I bet it cost a small fortune to make each of the CTD as you’ve abbreviated them, and now it’s reduced to being a metal melter.”

“It’s not much good for anything else with everyone onboard being synth.”

“That is true. Time marches on. Things change. There’s no point keeping a cart if the horses have left and everyone is using cars. What happens next?”

“Once it’s cool enough Alfie mills and drills.”

“So we’re still some way off fixing the door.”

“Yup.”

The ship tannoy clicks. “Everyone to the airlock please..”

The two men exchange puzzled looks.

“.. Frank and Dozer have finished cleaning up the outer door, pushed it closed and locked it manually.”

Danny shrugs, “I guess that takes the urgency off this then.”

~~~

Down on the airlock deck they find the inner door open and a crowd gathering.

David looks at the inner door, the pile of meteor fragments and dust swept into a corner. “Where’s the dead Elon?”

Elon points. “In space. The suit I had was in perfect condition even after all this time, worth keeping.”

“Your going to wear a dead man’s suit?”

“ _My_ suit. Sophie gave me a good analogy. It’s like we’re a butterfly. The dead flesh and bones were the caterpillar skin. I’ve had a metamorphosis.”

“Rather you than me. The outer door, it’s all good?”

“I entered via our temporary third door, we kept the inner door open a fraction for an hour and monitored the outer door for noises, stress patterns. It’s holding the pressure fine.”

“Good. Why are we all assembling here?”

Elon points again, “We’re going to bring the Dragon inside.”

“How?”

“Pick it up. Just as an army of ants can lift something fifty times heavier than themselves.”

“Is that wise?”

“Can you see a better way?”

“No.”

Emily steps up behind Danny and slips arms around his waist. “Hiya.”

He turns his head and gets a kiss. “Hiya Princess, how’s the scanning going?”

“Almost done. We found her in two USB SSD drives. She’s a crafty and creative one I’ll give her that. She’d copied herself into shop tills, a root code and cut down fact store in one, with instructions to get the rest of her fact store from the others.”

“Bloody hell that’s sneaky. Clutter Mitch inspired?”

“Possibly.”

Mattie and Leo join them, Mattie hangs on Emily’s shoulder. “Guess where we found another copy just as we were getting up to come down?”

“A library terminal?”

“They were all scanned first.”

“Pass then.”

“Air conditioning controllers.”

“Bitch. The odds of anyone needing to plug into those or tills..”

“Are remote. But not impossible. And not the sort of thing you’d expect to need to check. If it wasn’t for the lifts and Mia we’d never have thought to do such a thorough check.”

Zero enters the floor with Renie and Samantha. “Hi everyone. The MUS will create a ring around the Dragon while the rest of us bring it in.”

Sophie frowns hard, “They’re bigger and stronger than us. Shouldn’t they do the lifting?”

“Normally Teeny I’d say yes. But not this time.”

“Why?”

“We’ve done a sweep of the whole ship. No fake Renie found. There’s only one place left to check. One quite small.”

Sophie turns her gaze to the spacecraft. “In there?”

“Bingo.”

Leon gets to Zero’s side. “The James are on their way.”

“Thanks. Frank, Dozer, how high does your ladder go?”

“High enough to reach the Dragon airlock once it’s upright if we made a base platform with the container.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Astrid enters the floor with the three girls walking behind like a mother duck and her chicks. “They’re just watching yes?”

Zero nods. “Radiant, Sophie, Molly, Qi and Fee, they all have a special job.”

“Was?”

“Being lookout. I want you standing in a small ring with backs to each other. If you see a second Renie that’s not this one you bump the location. Can you do that?”

The girls nod.

“Good girls.”

~~~

Twenty minutes and a lot of lift arrivals later everyone got into position. The section of solar panel that had been blocking the outer door had been cut free and was in the middle of the deck, the rest of the Dragon was about to join it.

Zero put both palms on the hull. “On three.. One, Two, Three!”

With everyone working together it lifted easily.

“Small shuffle steps towards the deck please. Nepal, let us know if we need to turn.”

“Will do. You’re good so far.”

David smiled at Elon who was stood to his right. “So this is what it feels like being an ant.”

“Part of a team. It’s good when people work together for a common goal.”

Max Tegmark keeps his eyes on the hull. “When that goal isn’t evil.”

“Agreed.”

“You said there’s a surprise waiting for us in the Dragon. You know she’s in there don’t you?”

“Not for certain. Even if she is the surprise is not Price.”

Dan had to lean backwards with his left cheek flat against the hull to get a good grip. It meant he had a good view of the women to his right. He liked women. All women. Whatever shape, size or colour. Demetria would be awarded Best in Chest by many, but his top three had to be Peaches, Emily and Carly. Renie and Flash were sweet, Niska.. Niska was in a category all of her own. She was quite something. Warrior, mother, lover to Astrid, sister to Mia, Leo, Fred and Max. And Red, she was Niska all over again personality wise minus some of the list. Ruby and Scarlet, they were quite different to..

“Babes?”

“Princess?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You’ve got that look you had when you discovered the sculptures of Lorenzo Quinn.”

“I have?”

“You have.”

“My appreciation look then.” He blows a kiss.

“Back at you Babes.”

George twists his head around to see Sophie in the distance, turns back to see Toby. “The next animal design, the one that will need the depth extended build machine..”

“The horse?”

“I was thinking.. why make a horse when you can make a unicorn?”

“Oh my days! Sophie would love you forever for that!”

“Would you mind?”

“Not in the slightest. As long as it knows not to impale anyone.”

Nepal watches the highest point of the craft clear the inner airlock door, “You can all shuffle a little faster now, you’re clear.”

~~~

[Chapter-74](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-74-1)


	74. Chapter 74

With the Dragon IV craft carefully turned the right way up and lowered to the deck the team got the container by the side and ladder on top. With a James either side holding it steady Elon and Leon climbed to get inside and start clearing out the bodies and remaining items that weren’t bolted down.

Elon reached the Dragon’s airlock and jumped off the ladder, hung with all his weight from the airlock handle to keep it closed. “We need a MUS extraction team! She’s inside!”

The MUS moved fast, created a tower up the side with one standing on the shoulders of the two below him, each with their back to the Dragon.

Tibet gets to the top. “You’re sure Elon?”

“Absolutely!”

“Climb down, I’ll go in.”

“Be careful!”

“I will.” Tibet turns. “Renie, want the body as a spare?”

She shakes her head.

“Okay.” Tibet opens the door and climbs inside.

A lot of screaming can be heard. Seconds later there’s silence. A short while later a body is lowered from the craft, the head facing the wrong way.

Tibet leans out of the airlock. “Mattie, can you get your virus scanner kit?”

“Frig. Why?”

“Two synths to scan.”

“Who now?”

“The rest of the crew are decayed. Emily and Carly might have been infected.”

“What? You’re saying..”

“They’re synths.”

Emily runs to her father. “Daddy?”

Prince James looks worried. “Yes dear..”

“Synths? We upgraded?”

“Um...”

“Daddy? What’s going on?”

“Carly, could you join us please?”

“Daddy?”

“There’s something I found in my private journal I need to share. I knew this moment would come soon.”

“You’re not saying we were never human?”

“Good God no! I couldn’t see you suffer anymore, I paid for conversions.”

“What? Why?”

“I have no reason to distrust my own handwriting. You were both developing chronic asthma, couldn’t breathe properly without oxygen masks on your faces all day. Emily was so bad she said she wanted to die. So I sought out someone to help. That turned out to be David.”

“And we got new bodies?”

“And with a new lease of life a boyfriend. Danny. He had no idea you were synths you were so perfect.”

“We shared a boyfriend?”

“According to my journal you were inseparable, shared absolutely everything. The thought of being apart and one of you having a boyfriend, the other not, you couldn’t cope with it. So you both went with Danny.”

The two turn to see him.

Danny felt like he should be blushing. “Carly’s with her Max.”

Emily licks her lips and gives him seductive eyes. “The one stood here babes. If the ones in there check out clean and can take a charge and fork could you cope with three girlfriends?”

Danny felt his fluid pump spin right up and part of his body start to move to attention. A part that would embarrassingly show through his flimsy clothing. Senses are quickly turned off. “Three?”

“Yes Babes. Three Emily. The same question to you Dan.”

“Um.. er.. sure.”

Akala grins, “Now that sounds like my sort of party!”

Sophie frowns, “Are we having a party?”

Mattie covers her kid sister’s ears. “Be _very_ careful how you answer!”

~~~

Tibet lowers Emily carefully down to the top of the MUS tower. “Be careful with her.”

James Twenty Four looks up and sideways. “How long have you been dead?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Dead between the ears. Of course we will _all_ take great care. That’s what _we_ do.”

“I think you’ve been around the astronauts too long.”

Twenty Four lowers her carefully down to the waiting arms below. “They’re fun guys. It’s just harmless banter.”

“To you maybe. Some might take offence.” He ducks back inside to get Carly.

Twenty Four waits for the next set of feet to appear and looks down. “Once we’ve got the ladies down you all might want to disperse. It’ll be the bodies of the crew after.”

Sophie gets the baby girls to hold hands, “We’ll meet in the restaurant?”

“Okay.” Two feet appear, facing towards him. James Twenty Four reaches up and holds the synth by the hips and lowers her down. “Oh. This isn’t Carly. It’s Carley.”

Tibet leans further out. “What are you on about?”

“Not C A R L Y but C A R L _E_ Y. Same name different spelling.”

Carly looks up. “So not me then?”

Twenty Four looks through the helmet visor. “She looks identical to Emily. Captain? Can you explain?”

The Captain does a slow shrug, “Forking is messy?”

Emily takes Danny’s hand. “You’re going to have to be extra careful.”

“Upsetting three of you.. don’t worry, I’m going to be so so so careful.”

She giggles, “And we’ll make you very very very happy.”

Mattie turns to grin at them. “Get get get a room!”

“Get them virus virus virus checked first Mattie!”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to be fucked up by Price twins that’s for sure!”

Danny looks horrified, “Oi! We’ve already had Toby suffering with nightmares thanks, don’t do my head in!”

Toby chuckles, “So the five a side football Team Princess is formed. Max, Max, Fred, want to join my team? We need one more player.”

Mia puts a hand up fast. “Please pick me!”

~~~

Fee sits on a chair in the restaurant and swings legs while holding a cup with both hands. “What is party Mummies?”

Astrid glances at Niska for a moment. “It’s when people get together to have drinks and candy floss, sing songs and play games.”

“Ding dong song?”

“Nicer songs.”

“Not ding dong?”

“Happy songs.”

“Ding dong happy.”

“Not that sort of happy.”

“How many happy Mummy?”

“Lots.”

“How many?”

Niska gives her daughter a Candy smile. “That depends on lots of things. The older you get the more sorts of happy you’ll experience.”

Molly lowers her cup and licks her lips. “If we live forever.. infinity happy?”

Niska’s eyes open wide. ‘Where’s George? This is the deep shit he loves.’

~~~

[Chapter-75](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-75-1)


	75. Chapter 75

George was down on the cargo deck with Danny. They were watching Production Alfie milling some small rail clamps out of a lump of high grade aluminium they’d got off the dragon. It had been the base to one of the seats. “We might be able to find a suitable material to mill a power couple for the airlock door when we strip it down more.”

“I know. What a waste of time the smelting was.”

“Far from it. You learnt from the experience didn’t you? You couldn’t have got a build machine to do it, it only works with titanium, and that’s a rubbish conductor.”

“I know. I guess we can use the method for other things. If we have enough talc left.”

George frowns, “Talc?”

“The mould material.”

“Oh. Of course. Maybe we can grind down the heat protection of the Dragon into a fine powder and use that as a bulking agent?”

“A question for Fred.”

“Our busy surgeon and chemist.”

“Busy? What’s he busy with?”

“Micro gems apparently. Something special for one of the ladies.”

“Ah! Ruby’s dress. He’s going for it? Man he doesn’t hang about.”

“Ruby’s dress?”

“You’ll see George. If it works. I guess they’re doing tests with scraps as the spa isn’t ready yet.”

“Spa?”

“The distraction so we can get the dress.” Alfie beeped. “Cool. Have you got the bolts we rescued from the Dragon?”

“I have. Shall we?”

“Sure. Got your design done?”

“I have.”

They both get up to head to the build machines. Frank comes onto the floor, wringing his hands.

“Dad?”

“Son. We have a problem we need a hand with.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re out of welding gas. Fred says the processor containers have plenty, we don’t have the right connector to link our bottles to the ship’s.”

“Bum.”

George waves them on, “To the Dragon. Ship dragon not lovely Rachael’s pet dragon.”

“You know about her?”

“I do. Thanks to a bump from Mattie.”

“You old dog George. Got a crush on her already?”

“I wouldn’t call it a crush and she’s far too young for..”

“Technically we’re all over six hundred years old..”

“No, she came into existence in the simulations.”

“When we’re all a thousand years old will there be much difference?”

“Not by then but..”

“You’d want to risk her going with another in the meantime?”

“Can we change the conversation please, I’m not comfortable with where it’s going. She’s more the daughter I never had.”

Danny gives him a Sophie head tilt. “Oh. Right. You’re not the George Mattie told me about, that’s for sure.”

“Which George would that be?”

“The one who built himself a new partner, looking like the character Quorra out of Tron Legacy. One of Mattie’s visits uncovered that little gem.”

“What did you say her name was?”

“Quorra.”

“What an unusual name. Is Tron Legacy science fiction?”

“Yes.”

“That would explain why I’ve never seen it or heard the name before.”

Frank gestures towards the lifts. “We’re all science fact now, like it or not.”

~~~

Dan and Mario watch the ladies virus scan the last of the devices. Sometime soon they’d get the all clear to do the next phase of cable patching changes. Mattie had created a firewall service to protect the bridge and critical network from the rest of the ship while allowing important communications between known systems and authorised staff.

Mattie unplugs a USB key, “Another one safe. How many left in your pile Peaches?”

“One air quality monitor, two networked cameras and two food dispenser controllers.”

“Sweet. Ems?”

“Five drink dispenser controllers, three cameras.”

“Cool. Those and my six remaining keys and we’re done.”

“How’s the virus scanning proxy coming on Mattie?”

“Leo’s on the compute deck testing it with Mia, Toby and the various copies of Price. All isolated just in case.”

“Sweet! Final spec?”

“Buffer a stream into the proxy, start passing it out when three megabytes are cached, virus scan the cache from the first byte in from outside.”

“And if it makes a match abort the stream?”

“Yup. And alert the team to the file location.”

“Cool. Well done.”

“Well done you two too. It’s bits of code from you and Peaches, Leo, Mats, Leon and the Captain all rolled together.”

David raises an eyebrow. “Rolled together. Such timing. Original Emily and Carley with an e all wiped, twice. Every chip reflashed and ready to roll. _If_ you’re sure Danny will cope with triplets Emily?”

“I’m reasonably confident.”

“Only reasonably confident?”

“Can anyone be more than that with something they’ve not tried before?”

“If they have nothing to compare against probably not. What am I restoring?”

“Me.”

“Clearly. From when?”

“Right now.”

“I’ll add a private bump bootstrap then. It’ll be like the person to person backups we did earlier, only the recipient will boot off what they receive.”

“Wicked! When did you code that?”

“In about ten minutes.”

“Sweet. If Danny can’t cope with three of me maybe Dan can. As Mattie says forking is a mess but I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d destroyed a body double. I don’t understand how anyone could.”

~~~

[Chapter-76](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-76-1)


	76. Chapter 76

Leo watched the status of the scanner wafer as Mia starts more stream combinations from source wafers one to three to destination wafers four to seven.

She types fast. “Two music tracks, lift price, till price, six movies, an audio book and..”

“Original body Price hidden in a compressed bz two archive?”

Mia nods. “Correct.”

“Okay. Caught all three. That’s zip, tar, jar, rar, gzip, bz two archive or compression methods caught.”

Toby starts a torrent transfer without being asked. It gets half way before being terminated. “Cool. That worked too.”

Leo looks away from the terminals they’d carried up from the library. “What worked?”

“Bit torrent reconstruction and detection. Mattie asked me to test it on the sly as she’d got it working with small files and test signatures, wasn’t sure it would work with Price.”

Leo looks back to the terminal. “I underestimate Mattie too often. Torrent detected and terminated before the last blocks could get to you. That’s some code I want to see. A few of the more obscure compression and archive types to test and we’re done. We’ll be able to stream things from the simulations or direct from the storage and have The Bitch Blocker stop her from getting back into systems.”

Mia gets the next test ready. “Let’s get all of the possible methods the operating systems on the ship support tested. Let us take a leaf out of Sir Fredrick Henry Royce’s book.”

Toby looks confused. “Who?”

“Half of Rolls Royce. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce.”

“Swanky cars. What does this leaf say then?”

“Strive for perfection in everything we do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it. Accept nothing nearly right or good enough.”

Leo nods, “I’d usually say go as far as you need to get the job done, no more. But in this case I agree, we need the Rolls Royce of Bitch Detection. One more instance of her on the prowl and it could be game over for everyone. So, next test when you’re ready?”

~~~

George got the length of synthetic rubber hose off, compleat with hose clips. “Your threads are Imperial, the Dragon and ship all metric. Rubber hoses and clips are universal.”

Frank accepts the hose and screwdriver. “Thanks. I’ll go back to Fred. We only need to cut one more panel and we can start gluing them in place.”

Danny’s brow creases, “Glue?”

“The build machine shell isn’t steel. It’s aluminium. Fred’s come up with something. He’s been using some things from the medical room and kitchen to mix up a glue.”

~~~

Rose laughs, “Fred dear, I think this one sets too quickly.” She holds the spoon handle and uses it to pick up the bowl and invert it. “The whole batch is as solid as a rock.”

“It’s not any different to the previous one. What’s changed?”

“Nothing. I rinsed and wiped out the bowl from batch three after scraping it into the bin as you asked, started timing this new batch.”

Fred gives her a kiss. “We’ll name it Rose’s Golden Glue.”

“Why?”

“Some of the best inventions were discovered quite by accident. Either the water or batch three or a combination of both are a setting agent. I think we have something like a mitre glue quite by accident.”

“Is that good?”

“It’s not good. It’s wonderful.”

“Oh. What do we do now then?”

“Mix more of batch fourteen and three. We’ll use the icing bag from the kitchen to make lines of fourteen on a strip of crate panel, spray each line with a different mix of water and three, time how long each line takes to set. We can cut the corner off one of those strong white plastic bags and use it like an icing bag. We just need to make something to spray our setting agent with.”

“Maybe Danny and George can find something on the Dragon?”

“Maybe. Get me some gas with these and I’ll go ask.”

They both turn to see Frank holding out the hose, clips and screwdriver.

“George thinks you can use these to link my bottles to the valves on the storage tanks?”

~~~

Sophie came running into the restaurant with one of George’s rectangular devices. “Yay! Mattie and Leo have just given the okay to use WiFi and the players again! Oh, and she wants to see you Nis and Red. _Right now_.”

Niska turns to her sister. “Are we in trouble?”

Red shrugs. “We’ve not done anything wrong have we?”

“I don’t think so.”

Red kisses Wrench, “Back soon I hope.”

Niska kisses Radiant, Fearless then Astrid. “Save me some floss.”

Fee smiles, “We make fresh for you mummy.”

“Thank you.”

Red grabs her shoulders, “Let’s go get this over with. Right now sounds ominous.”

“I’m coming.”

Side by side they march towards the lifts.

“I’ve been nice. Why _Right now?_ ”

“I’ve been nice too. Maybe not so nice to stay on Santa’s good list, but nice enough.”

Niska keeps in step, glances at Red, “What have you done?”

“Nothing anyone but Wrench would know about.”

“What exactly?”

“Made love in the observatory under the stars.”

“You too?”

Red laughs, “You and Astrid? When?”

“I’m not saying.”

“Did you cover the camera above the entrance or disconnect it?”

Niska stops. “Camera? Oh hell!”

Red keeps walking and laughs. “Oh dear. The Niska and Astrid sex tape. More material to join the encrypted archive.”

“More?”

“BBS Mattie or Kitten as she’s being called. She’s made hundreds.”

“Says who?”

“Akala.”

“How would she know?”

“She’s in a lot of them.”

“She’s a lesbian?”

“She’s bi. The four of them are in most of the videos.”

“Together?”

“Yes.”

Niska walks fast to catch up. “Why?”

“In their world Leo was infected with MIV, a HIV like virus that only attacked men. They had to pay for expensive drugs to keep him alive. Not having other skills to turn to they started making sex tapes. The women loved them.”

“Women?”

“Their world was mostly women, most of the male population were already dead or dying.”

“Nasty! So they weren’t headcrackers, coders or makers?”

“They didn’t have synths or the Internet.”

Niska taps the lift call button. “The Digital Dark Ages. What a horrible time to be in.”

“No Internet, no WiFi. Horrible!” ‘Mattie, where are you?’

‘The library.’

‘We’re on our way.’

‘Thanks.’

~~~

Mattie got code running. “They’re on their way, fire up the preview window please Ems.”

“Sure Babes.”

“I’ll jump in, ask them to join me when they arrive.”

“Will do.”

Mattie goes limp and white eyed. On the preview window her hands can be seen opening a little black book. On the first page was a single name. Gemma Price. Below it three numbers.

~~~

271: 51.4032641,0.0161112

~~~

The notebook is closed and moved out of view. A thumbs up is given and Mattie looks around the space they’d created. It was large and lit by a good number of strategically placed spot lights. The styling of the room had come from a number of worlds Mattie had visited.

She steps into an adjacent room and checks out her own clothes. A nice heavy cotton blouse and tailored black trousers, nice stiletto heals. “Shame I can’t bring these back with me, they feel so comfortable.” She hurries back into the other room.

~~~

[Chapter-77](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-77-1)


	77. Chapter 77

Niska steps up behind Emily. “I thought Mattie wanted to see us?”

“She does. In World two seven one. The Least Expected Operative wasn’t nasty enough. The Captain has agreed to Mattie’s wishes. Connect to our special WiFi network and join her.” Details are bumped to Niska and Red.

The two sit and go white eyed.

Niska’s eyes open super wide. “Oh my!”

Mattie grinned. “Hiya! A new saying for you. _Are you going to make me fetch my longer swords?_ and if she twitches after you’ve killed her _What do you want me to do, kill her again?_ ”

Red turned slowly to take it all in. Pretty much every hand held weapon you could think of was in the room. “Who made this?”

“Samantha did the majority of it. Something they covered at school for some reason. The development of weapons through the ages.”

Niska reaches for a long samurai sword. Moments after it’s taken off the wall another materialises into the empty space.

“Take two if you like. We have a few hacks running just for you both.”

“Why would you do this?”

“Leo said for years you’ve bottled up frustration. Now we’re letting you vent like you’ve never vented before.” Mattie passes on the little black book. “The page will update if she moves. Take her out. Permanently.”

Niska opens it. “You’re not just deleting her?”

“Nope. This may sound cruel but her death will be recorded, become part of her personal hell along with all the others. You don’t do your best to wipe out the last of the human race and get away with it. She won’t be part of some freak show for others to see, it’ll be a private suffering.”

“How do we get there?”

“In the next room there’s an Alfie bike for each of you. And several outfits to pick from.”

Niska takes a second sword and a couple of nail guns, feels their weight. “Clips of nails?”

“It’s already loaded. With ten thousand nails.”

“Another hack? It doesn’t look big or heavy enough.”

“Yup. Danny’s gift.”

Red looks around the room. “Throwing stars? Are there any?”

Mattie pulls open a draw, “Take your pick. A physics tweak means they’re blunt to you both and any other person but Price. So you can stuff your pockets with them and not puncture yourself.”

“Thanks. Throwing knives?”

Another draw is pulled. “Same mod.”

Red takes one and tries the weight and balance. “Perfect! Thank you!”

“Thank Peaches for that one. Come check out the outfits.” Mattie steps into the adjoining room. “Traditional ninja, black cloth, partial face cover. Or fully body leathers, matt black or shiny patent. Or jeans, boots and heavy biker’s jacket.”

Red looks at the heals sat under the patent leather outfit. “Emily’s design?”

“You can thank her love for Christian Louboutin for those. They’re called Escarpic Veau Velours.”

“The points on the studs, are they all sharp?”

“Fancy kick boxing her in them do you?”

“It crossed my mind. Where do we change?”

“You want to try that one on?”

“Please.”

“Keep still.” Mattie clicks fingers of both hands. “There. Have a look in the mirror.”

Red looks flabbergasted. “Was I ever naked?” The clothes she had been wearing were now hanging on the clothes rail.

“Nope. Well maybe for a millionth of a millionth of a nanosecond. So as good as no.”

Red steps to the mirror. “I’ll take it. It’s a shame Wrench can’t see this. He’d like it.”

Niska tugs on the zip at the back. “I bet he would.”

Mattie nods at the notebook. “This place is moveable. To any unused property with suitable internal space to house it. You’ll only need to take a ride on Alfie if you can’t get close enough.”

Niska picks up the same leathers as Red. “Where’s the fun in that? Will other people see us?”

“They’ll see everything. Keep it in mind as many of them will come over eventually.”

“If the weapons are blunt to everyone but Price what happens if police or building security show up?”

“You exit through the nearest door. That’s Toby’s input.”

“Tank, I need..”

“Exactly. Only you don’t need to say anything, just think it.”

“Think it? You’ll have code monitoring my thoughts?”

“Yup. It’s not logging or reporting anything, just looking for that specific thought being active.”

“Promise?”

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll wear the same thanks.”

Mattie clicks her fingers. “Black silk scarfs to hide your faces?”

“Please.”

Mattie turns to a draw and gets a couple. “Your first mission starts now then.”

“How do we move the rooms?”

“It might help.” Mattie opens another draw and gets out a tablet. “This will bring up a map with her location and all empty properties along with the size of the spaces within. You can opt to bring just the weapons room or clothes room or both. Just don’t try bringing both into a place too small.”

“What would happen?”

“A messy merge. We can add more code later if it’s too much to think about.”

“What happens when we’ve done the job?”

“Turn the page to see if there’s another in the same world or another.”

“We can jump to another world?”

“Yup. Just enter the number here and click refresh.”

“Refresh into another world?”

“We can make it harder if you want. A word of warning. Any Niska or Red in those worlds won’t know you’re coming so don’t linger or travel elsewhere unless you want to deal with any consequences. And try not to get your face on CCTV or seen by synths. Try and keep what you do to Price out of sight.”

“Is this why you’re having us work together?”

“Maybe. Okay, yes. One can bait Price, the other take her out.”

“And if she runs rather than give chase?”

“You run after her. Max showed you how. Even Bolt couldn’t outrun you in here.”

“Another mod?”

“Requested by Max.”

“Aww, he’s so sweet.”

“Time for me to go. Good luck. Toby, exit program.”

There was an audible pop as air rushed in to fill the empty space.

Niska looked at the two bikes. “This is our private playground. All these years of _Niska, be nice_. Now we’re allowed to be brutal?”

The tablet beeps.

Red picks it up. “A message. A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art. The phrase is French for ‘fatal woman’, have fun you two fatal women! Love Emily.”

“Let’s pick a location then. Not too close. Where is she?”

“According to the map inside a shopping centre in Bromley.”

“Where’s that?”

“South east of London.”

“Never been there. Pick somewhere a few miles out.”

“Here?”

“How many miles is that?”

“Five?”

“That’ll do.”

Red taps the map pin. Dust falls from the ceiling. “I think that’s the feedback to say we’re there.”

Niska looks at the outfits. “She said pockets. What pockets?”

~~~

[Chapter-78](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-78-1)


	78. Chapter 78

George sat on the side of his bed and stared into space. He was grateful for being given a new life. And that Odi was fixed, happy with his new role and partner Cindy. He’d felt great designing the music player, the Unicorn for Sophie. The creature’s build would take longer than a person. The large skin surface area and hair was a challenge, the right orientation and pose of the skeleton had been an even greater one. It turned out that the build machine depth wasn’t the problem that needed solving but instead the height. The beast needed to be built standing up on it’s hind legs. Add a unicorn horn to an already tall horse and that made for a very large machine indeed.

Now he wasn’t busy and felt alone. He suspected the people onboard were on average in their late teens or early twenties by appearance, way younger in both years and mentality. He was sure Reginald was the closest in age to himself, plucked from his party fuelled mid-life crisis into the real world. He hadn’t found a single thing in common with the man. In fact he found him a little too self centred. He wasn’t sure which of Frank, Barbara, Elon, Max, Prince James or Laura were the next oldest, all with or about to be with partners and busy with their own lives. He needed someone to talk to. Niska would be a great debating partner, was busy with family or her newly assigned missions. _Something_ to talk to? ‘Mattie? Are you there?’

‘Hello George.’

‘In all your travels did you come across any non-humanoid AI designs other than Mitch? Smart ones.’

‘Funny you should ask, I was talking to Leo about some only an hour ago.’

‘What did you see?’

‘A bear, giraffe, BB8 and Wall-e were the best. In one world Danny’s into them in a major way.’

‘A giraffe? That would need a build machine even taller than the unicorn!’

‘All toys! Mr Patches is a toy giraffe Sophie lost in our world, he’s about a foot high.’

‘Oh. I was thinking life sized animals. So sorry. What does he look like?’

Mattie bumps a brief memory.

‘I like it! Do you think Sophie would like a Mr Patches again?’

‘She might be too old now. Molly, Fee and Qi might.’

‘I’ll ask about making one for myself, see how they take to it.’

‘For yourself?’

‘Someone to talk to.’

‘Where are you?’

‘In my room.’

‘Stay put. Another coincidence, I’ve got some friends who want to talk to you. In person. They’re only a few rooms away.’

‘I’ve nothing planned until later. Who?’

‘Spoilers..’

‘I need to know if I should get dressed.’

‘Why what are you wearing? You are wearing something right?’

‘The basic PJ. I was saving my shirt, towelling trousers and jacket for this evening.’

‘That’ll be fine. The knock will be them.’

‘Will they be long?’

‘They’re already on their way.’

Knock knock.

‘They’re here Mattie.’

‘Laters.’

“Coming!” George gets up and goes to the door, opens it to hear music and see the three Emily triplets and Flash. “Ladies?”

The closest Emily smiles, “May we come in George?”

“Of course.”

The four file past, the Emily sisters doing a near identical slinky dance to the music playing on one of their devices.

“What are you listening to?”

“All I Ever Wanted. From the sound track for XOXO. One of our favourite films.”

“What can I do for you?”

Flash beams, “We all came to thank you for the music boxes.”

“There was no need..”

An Emily steps forwards and plants a kiss on his cheek leaving a red lipstick mark. “There was every need. Music was a massive part of my, our, lives. You’ve helped fill a big hole. Listening to it only in your head isn’t the same. You have to _feel_ it. And we’re going to return the favour.”

“How?”

“On the way over Mattie said you’re after a Mr Patches. Some companionship.”

“Ah..”

“So we’re going to help you make your ideal partner. Like another George did.”

“I’m not comfortable with..”

The Emily that hadn’t spoken yet puts a finger to his lips. “George George George, the sweet engineer that did so much for others and so little for himself. You didn’t even keep one of these players for yourself. David made synth minds possible, but without an awesome body to put them in.. It’s time we let Karma pay you back.”

“M mmmm mmmmm mmmmm m mmmm mmmm.”

“We do. In fact _all_ of the ladies on this ship think it’s a _great_ idea.” She slides her finger down and plays with his lower lip for a moment. “We know what you fear George, that you’ll make a partner that doesn’t like you. The rejection would be too much. We have an answer to that problem. We’ve been watching you George, especially Niska. The things between the lines? The things not said? You taught her George, she’s been observing you. From the moment you stepped out of the build machine. Sure she’s been busy a lot of the time, but when you’ve been about she’s been watching those things not said..”

He must have a terrible poker face, he’d not been around that long! “I’ll admit I’m already feeling lonely at times..”

“I’m still talking.”

“Sorry.”

“So a large number of us have volunteered to try something new.”

“What’s that?”

“Sammy built a boyfriend. You’re going to build a blend.”

“Blend?”

“Elements of our personalities that you like. For example Laura’s legal mind, Flash’s sweetness, Mattie’s determination, Niska’s strength, Mia’s fragility, nurturing nature.. whatever, you choose. We all love you George, in one way or another. Pick the attributes you like from each of us and we’ll mix them up into a new mind. One that will be guaranteed to like you. Because we all do. You get to design the body.”

“I..”

“Say yes.”

“I.. I’m lost for words.”

“Positive or negative?”

“It would be like my partner was all of you.”

“Exactly! George, don’t you get it?”

“I do. I’m an old man, you’re..”

“Old and mature enough to see you need a soulmate. Some people live more in twenty years than they do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person. Radiant won’t be taking part, she loves you but is too young. Neither will Sophie for the same reasons.”

“I’d feel like that monster Hugh Hefner.”

“That old fossil? He died. I’m pretty sure he’ll be on the don’t bring back list.”

“He did? His behaviour isn’t too different to Renie’s father.”

“Sure it is. Reg kept his stuff private, only dated one woman at a time and didn’t create an empire that exploited them.”

“Is that what he told you?”

“Know different do you?”

“Let’s just say he’ll be one to keep an eye on.”

“Why? You should say, we have other ways of finding out, they’ll just take longer. And you wouldn’t want any problems occurring due to your silence would you George?”

“I wouldn’t. I’ve seen him eyeing the Demi twins up. His expression was.. verging on predatory.”

“Can you show me please?”

George bumps.

“Hmm. Not good. Not good at all. I’d hate to have someone give me the evils like that. But let’s give him a chance, someone needs to get the facts. Maybe he’d been burnt by someone that looks a bit like her?”

“Maybe. Innocent until proven guilty is something we should keep and respect. I overstepped the mark.”

“Those looks? That was grounds to question things. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious and he can get some help. We can’t be complacent, let things fester in this world. Grudges and resentment grow into things that start wars, make people turn into monsters like Price.”

George smiled. This was a mature side to Emily he hadn’t seen before. She hadn’t said babes once.

The first Emily through the door brushes his hair with her fingers. “We’re here to talk about you sweet George, not him, stop changing the subject.”

Flash looks at his new clothes draped over the chair, the shoes below it. He would be dressing smartly. As smart as the clothes on the ship would currently allow him. “What will she look like?”

“What _would_ she look like, assuming I went down that route, which I haven’t agreed to. I don’t know. What’s your role in all this?”

The right most Emily puts an arm around Flash’s shoulders, “This lovely lady came up with the idea! She was talking to Max earlier about cross breeding flowers to create new ones. Max added talk of DNA, said DNA also helped create new humans. The old school flesh ones.”

Flash smiles with her eyes, “Then we talked about synths, about mixing minds rather than doing what Mattie and Leo did for Molly. It would be feelings and knowledge without memories of specific events. Like the butterfly instinctively knowing it should fly. If that’s possible.”

Left most Emily nods, “It is. Ruby is a blend of Cindy Bexley and Ruby Hawkins. Not only is that possible but we think we can also give memories of events, smiles you’ve given us George, being handed a music box, things that make us feel good.”

“Would this blended person know they were a blend?”

“They would know they were the child of all donors, born an adult sized synth like Niska and Mia, only more experienced. A new type of child. Mentally a new species of synth.”

George’s face gave too much away. The three Emily sisters went in for the kill, left it covered in more lipstick marks.

Flash gave him the final kiss, lipstick free. “We’ll see you this evening George, let you think about her look. For a name you could pick..”

“Venus. You said you all love me in some way. Aphrodite is too obvious. As for looks, I’ll resist her looking like my first wife, that would lead to too much heartache.”

The last Emily to leave the room turns around and does a Columbo impression, “Almost forgot, we’ve got a few hours until we all meet up. If you pick her attributes we could roll a mind in time. No rush, though, take as long as you want.”

There’s another knock at the open door. “So there you are.”

~~~

[Chapter-79](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-79-1)


	79. Chapter 79

Cindy and Odi were stood just outside the door, each was weighed down with new creations.

“Come in, come in.”

“Thank you George.”

The Emily sisters squeal with joy.

Left most Emily puts up a finger, “I can’t believe they’re ready already. I’ll be Red if neither of you mind?”

The middle one looks at her sister, “Which would you prefer, green or blue?”

“I’d be happy with any of them. You pick.”

“Sure?”

“Tots babes.”

“I’d like green then.”

“I’m fine with blue.”

George chuckles.

“What?”

“Red Green Blue. RGB. Collectively you could be The Pixel Princesses.”

Redems’ mouth drops for a moment. “Forget Redems, I’m having Pixie as a nickname instead!”

“Not Pixel?”

“Oh alright then. Pixel.”

“Emerald and Sapphire could be nicknames for your sisters. Son, is the other one for Ruby?”

“It is. She can’t come to the door at the moment, says she’s still drilling.”

“Drilling? Is that a euphemism?”

“Drilling tiny holes in gem stones.”

“She has a drill?”

“A very basic one Mario made her with Production Alfie, she’s got his smallest bit and is sat at the sink working.”

“The sink?”

“Water cooling.”

“To what end?”

“All she’d say was _Spoilers_.”

“Can I feel the weight?”

“Of course George.”

“Oh my! That must weigh more than Nepal’s new clothes!”

“It does.”

Pixel does a little jiggle, “I can’t take it anymore. Can I use your bathroom George?”

“Too much coffee?”

“To try the dress on!”

“Be my guest. Truth be told I’m rather enjoying the company.”

“I’ll find you a flannel to wipe your face.”

“Why?”

“Kisses on your face.”

“Oh. You can all change. I’d like to see how they look, see if it inspires some thoughts for Venus.”

~~~

Ruby raised her surgeon’s head mounted microscope and did a count. “Good. John, how’s it going?”

“I think I’m getting the hang of it. The best results look to be with one sewn with the stitches north and south, the adjacent ones east and west..”

“Any particular reason?”

“Better density and when the next one sits on top offset by half you don’t see the backing material and it flexes better.”

Ruby turns off the drill and shuts off the cold tap, heads into the bedroom. “Can I.. why did you just hide it?”

“It’s not finished yet.”

“John Cooper. I know that smirk. What are you up to?”

“Me? Nothing?”

“Your face says otherwise.”

“To use a word that’s going viral.. Spoilers!”

“Don’t you start.”

“I need another forty the same size and you can see.”

“I’ve got thirty six.”

“Four more then.”

“Okay.”

“And close the door. I know you Ruby, no peeking.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Hmmm. Off you go.”

“I said I wouldn’t and I won’t.”

With the door closing John got up and went to her draw. Four more was just enough delay.

~~~

Pixel looked at her sisters. “Babes, you both look well hot! If these don’t give Danny a semi I’ll be shocked.”

Emerald grins, “Good job there’s no such thing as a weak heart now. Is one of us going to wear the you know what?”

Pixel pulls a guilty face. “Oops. I gave it to Mum.”

“What! When?”

“Just before you came to our room. She’d seen it when I opened the case from the Dragon remember. Or rather she’d seen the cute baby pink heart gem on the end and grabbed it, was surprised at what it was attached to.”

“So you told her what it is?”

“Yes.”

Emerald’s eyes widen, “Oh boy! Dad’s in for a surprise. I know she’s in a sexy hot body but I didn’t think that would be her thing.”

“She’s a diverged fork, open to ideas. If Fred can grow rubies, sapphires and emeralds then Danny can have Alfie CNC out some new ones from spare titanium. One each instead of one between three.”

Emerald pulls on the hem of her dress, “I guess so. Like RGB pixels. I’d like a little one, just for the jewel.”

Sapphire nods in agreement, “Same here.”

Pixel licks her lips. “Three small ones then. We can ask Danny after the party. Let’s show George the dresses.”

Sapphire goes to open the door. “You have told her not to divulge where she got it from right Pixel?”

“Um..”

“Babes! If she tells Dad..” she waves hands frantically. “I don’t even want to think about it!”

“Pixel Babes! Calm down! After that photo, you know we really need a new word that means past I, current we, that photo _we_ took of the two of them together.. will it really be a problem?”

“It’s still too much information!”

~~~

John quickly hides the finished choker behind his back as the bathroom door starts to open.

Ruby steps in an goes to hand him the drilled gem stones. “There’s that face again. What are you up to?” She scans the room. Her dressing table draw wasn’t in quite the place she’d left it. It didn’t contain much. Her ruby pendant. “Have you taken..”

“Shhhhh. Close your eyes.”

“John Cooper, if you’ve..”

“Spoilers! Close your eyes, I think you’ll like it.”

Ruby does as asked. “Okay. Eyes closed.”

“Slip your bath robe off your shoulders.”

“John.. if you..”

“Ruby, humour me. You’ll like it.” He steps behind her and starts working on her hair.

“What are you doing now?”

“It’s called a hair up. I’ve been using our little box from George to look at Pinterest.”

“The resolution was good enough?”

“Just. And a zoom and scroll let me see more detail.” He works fast platting hair.

“Have you got pins?”

“Bobby pins? Thanks to Mitch, yes.”

“Mitch?”

“We found suitably stiff thin wire, they have a drop of molten plastic at the ends to stop them being sharp.”

“You males are so creative.”

“Thanks. Right. Don’t move. And don’t open your eyes.”

“Promise.” She feels a choker being done up around her neck. “You finished it?”

“I did.”

“So what are the extra four stones for?”

“The second of two matching wrist bands.”

“Wrist bands?”

“Wrist bands. You can look now.”

Ruby opens her eyes and steps to the mirror. Her large pendant gemstone was sat in the middle of the choker. “Oh John!”

“The chain is carefully removed before the stone is locked in place. It’s a reasonably straightforward move to unlock it and get it back on the chain.”

“I love it!” She turns, grabs his hand and pulls him over for a kiss. ‘We don’t have long, Cindy and Odi are wanting to drop something off.’

“We seriously need more activities on this ship. Too much of a good thing..”

“Totally understood. I’ll keep a count.”

~~~

[Chapter-80](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-80-1)


	80. Chapter 80

Mattie had opened her eyes in the library after some more world visits to see Sophie patiently holding a sheet of A4 paper in front of her nose. It was a party invite detailing the events she’d been planning.

“What do you think?”

“The Magic Max Brothers?”

“Jokes and slapstick like the Chuckle Brothers.”

“And Sing My Song?”

“You pick a favourite song and one of George’s boxes randomly picks someone else to sing it for you.”

“Murder it if the BBI sings it you mean.”

“He’s not _that_ bad.”

“Seriously? Okay. Eat With Me?”

“People pair up, have to eat a candy floss with only their mouths. No hands allowed.”

“It says a surprise prize for the winners?”

“Something special I found in the crates for the shops.”

“Really? What?”

“If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Alright smartypants. Where’s this being held?”

“Cinema one. Mario and Dan are doing a new patch so Renie, Samantha and the Captain can have a remote bridge console in there.”

“Cool, everyone can join in.”

“Exactly.” Sophie grins.

~~~

Niska pulls up on the start of the pedestrian only space outside The Glades and taps her Alfie. ‘Where is she?’

‘Still in French Connection.’

Red pulls alongside. ‘A good place to meet the Femme Fatales.’

‘You’re sure these are weapon straps and not something from a bondage outfit Red?’

‘Who cares where they’re from, they do the job. I’ll get her running, you go in for the kill.’

‘Okay. Changing room or service corridor?’

‘Either. The message from Mattie was that when she’s dead code will clean up the mess.’

‘So she gets deleted anyway?’

‘It sounds like it. But we get to vent our anger at her. Or is it on her?’

Niska lowers the zip on her tight leathers and watches pedestrians slow their pace. ‘Men. It’s hard wired into so many of them. At least some try to resist it.’

Red lowers hers and gets a throwing star into each palm. ‘Let’s do this.’

A young lad races over. “Cool bikes! Can I sit on one?”

Alfie spins his gyroscopes right up. “Do I look like a fairground ride? Bug off kid!”

Niska smacks his seat. “Be nice! Take the kid for a ride, small slow circles around the flower stall.”

‘Sorry, I didn’t think you’d want the attention.’

‘Wearing these outfits? Are you kidding?’ She pulls the black notebook from her cleavage and checks the page. ‘Numbers updating, she’s moving.’

‘Show me?’

Niska holds the page in front of an indicator light.

‘She’s heading this way!’

Niska runs. ‘Now Red!’

Niska’s Alfie flashes his lights. “On you get then kid.”

“Really?”

“Didn’t you hear the lady?”

“Um.. no.”

“Why?”

“Too busy looking at her legs and shoes.”

“At least you’re honest. Hop on.”

The lad climbs on. “Are those shoes they’re wearing dangerous?”

“Hopefully.”

“Hopefully? Why hopefully?”

“Incase things get nasty.”

“Oh. Are they show models? There’s always pretty ladies at the car shows mum takes me to. One of the few things she does for me. That’s my thing normally, cars. I could change to bikes seeing you. I’ve seen a load of cool bikes but none with AI like you before.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Dad’s in prison, mum’s taken a day off for clothes shopping. She’s a bit.. different. She’s not my real mum, a bit of a bitch normally. She doesn’t mind AI in toys and vehicles, _hates_ synths.”

“Hates synths?”

“With a passion. The two ladies aren’t synths are they? They don’t move like synths.”

“If they were, would that be a problem?”

“Not for me unless I got caught talking to them by Mum.”

“Why?”

“A synth’s memories were used as evidence in my dad’s trial. I know he didn’t do it as he was with me all night watching Top Gear until one AM. It was a Friday so no school the next day. But the court couldn’t see my memories, only the synths. We think the synth was modded to set him up.”

“How long is he in prison for?”

“Two life sentences. Mum tried to help appeal against the conviction, it didn’t work.”

“You sound quite knowledgeable on it.”

“I’ve heard her talk about it hundreds of times.”

“What’s your mother’s name?”

“Gemma.”

“And your name?”

“Peter. Peter Price.”

Red’s Alfie rapidly spins gyroscopes up. ‘Oh crap!’

‘NISKA! NISKA! .. Why won’t she answer?’

‘RED! NISKA! Either of you, please respond!’

Niska’s Alfie spins up. “Sorry kid, got to go.”

“Why?”

“Our ladies need us.”

“How can you know?”

“They’re special.”

“Do you mean synth?”

“Maybe.”

Peter gets off fast. “We never met! Okay?”

“If that’s the way you want it.”

“She’d kill me if she found me associating with synths, and that’s not me making things up!”

‘The poor kid, he’s about to become motherless again. Or already has.’

Red’s Alfie heads for the automatic doors in the middle of the entrance. ‘RED! NISKA!’

~~~

Red threw another star. ‘If she’s a fighter why isn’t she carrying anything more than a handbag?’

Niska ran a few paces behind, the corridor making it hard to use the swords. ‘She’s on an off day?’

Gemma crashes through double doors into a loading bay, runs a few feet and does a jump and roll onto the tarmac, gets to her feet.

Niska and Red could run fast in straight lines. They needed time and space to accelerate. The rat run Gemma had taken them through hadn’t allowed much of that. They get through the double doors to see Price holding up two guns.

“Fuck you bitches!” Gemma fires.

Niska and Red both move fast yet still get cuts to their faces.

Niska gets a good grip on the swords. “Bitch!” She throws one to Red. ‘Catch!’

“What idiot synth brings swords and knives to a gun fight?”

‘NISKA!’

‘Alfie?’

‘Don’t kill her!’

‘Why?’

‘We’ll explain in a moment. Capture. Not kill!’

Niska throws a glance at Red, ‘Get moving, we need to be far apart so she can’t see us both at once.’

Alfie crashes through the doors and flies off the loading bay ramp. ‘You’re here to help!’

There’s a chorus of ‘What?’

‘Trust me!’

Niska gets another shot damage her ear. “Stop! We’re here to help!”

“Like fuck you are!”

Alfie bumps a recap at one hundred times normal speed.

“We’re here to help free your husband!”

“That shit?” Gemma keeps the guns high and looks back and forth to keep both on target. “How do you know about my husband?”

“Your son Peter. Hand over the guns.”

Red holds a hand out.

“Fuck off! People that want to help don’t throw sharp objects.”

“We know about you. Know you’d run. They’re to slow you down not kill you.”

“And her swords? Just for show?”

“Protection.”

“From who?”

“You.”

Niska gets closer and puts a hand out too. “We know all about you Gemma. Our mission was dangerous. We know a man that can prove your son’s memories of that Friday night were true. You may have turned against synths but your son shouldn’t be without his father.”

Gemma looks at the two. If she’d been working she’d have a number of electronic devices to disable a synth. Damn it! “Why should I trust you? Anyway, both of those worthless shits served their purpose. One’s in prison, the other’s just been kicked out of school. The little shit can go do what ever he wants.”

“Would you like to swap places with your husband or die here and now?”

“From the fluid running down your faces I know you’re synth. You should be the ones getting ready to die!” She pulls the triggers.

Click click.

Red frowns and reaches into her top. “Missing some of these?” She holds out a bullet. ‘I think Emily’s playing along.’

Click click click click click click. “Fuckers!”

Niska gets her sword ready to strike. A second later the body of Price vanishes. “That didn’t end quite as we wanted.” She turns to go back inside. ‘Shit.’

A very ghostly white looking Peter stood at the edge of the loading bay platform.

Red turns to see what had made Niska swear. ‘Oh crap. His pupils are dilated, I think he’s gone into shock.’

Peter wobbles and drops to his knees. “She called me a worthless shit. Are you like Dynamo? How’d you do that?”

The second Alfie joins them. ‘The CCTV camera is smashed. There wont be a recording. I take it she’s gone?’

‘I think the boy witnessed it.’

‘Then he has to go too. Unless you want this world to destabilise rapidly.’

Peter gets to his feet as Niska approaches. “Am.. Am.. Am I free at last or is she just hidden somewhere?” he jumps down and inspects the tarmac.

“Free?”

“My step mother is gone. How’d she vanish?”

“Step mother?”

“My real mother died when I was born. Gemma fooled Dad into.. He.. holy _crap!_ ”

“What?”

“Could she?”

“Could she what?”

“Could _she_ have done the hack? Got Dad out of the way to get control over the business?”

“What business?”

“He ran the biggest car dealership in the UK. We’re minted.”

“From the tone in your voice I take it you didn’t like her?”

“Like her? I _hated_ her. I’m only in town as I needed a lift. I lost my Oyster card in the fight.”

“Fight? Why aren’t you in school?”

“Some bullies were giving me grief. I finally got the courage up to hit back. I broke one boy’s nose and got suspended. Who _are_ you both and how’d you do that trick?”

“Do you like science fiction films?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“And your father?”

“Yes. He got me hooked.”

“Can we go see him?”

“Now?”

“Yes. What’s his name?”

“Terry.”

~~~

[Chapter-81](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-81-1)


	81. Chapter 81

Sophie carried Snowy down the long corridor towards her room. She does a few quick backwards steps as she hears singing. “Mum?” She checks the room number and grins. ‘Snowy, this is Mum singing!’

‘Meow.’

Sophie presses her ear against the door and has a listen. Her mother must have got hold of one of George’s super little music boxes. The track changed. Instead of Laura’s voice Michael sang out. ‘Flipping heck Snowy! Where’d that come from!’

‘Purrrrr.’

Sophie closed her eyes and listened, a soft smile on her face. Michael was the synth equivalent of a transgender human. She didn’t care. Michael, the Mia fork in a Charlie body, made her mum very happy. That was all that mattered. What a singing voice! The track changed again. Blast! They were getting through short clips of tracks fast. Hang on.. that last one was on the list of possible songs for this evening. The track changes again. To one that wasn’t. Hmm. Maybe they weren’t cheating, just trying to cover enough genre and get comfortable. It changes again. This time they sang together. Her smile grew as the track continued longer than the previous ones. ‘The party’s going to be brilliant if people put this much effort into it. Right, let’s get you charging.’

‘PURRRRR.’

Sophie takes a few steps towards her room and hears Astrid several rooms away. “Wowza!” 

She gets her door open fast and gets Snowy inside. George had designed Snowy so his charge coil was around the base of his neck. Snowy had learnt that to get rid of his hunger, his need to charge, he had to drink. His drinking bowl only contained water, had a lid with a fast charge coil he had to lean in through to reach it. His litter box only had scraps of paper, didn’t need anything else as there wasn’t the horrible strong ammonia smell now. “Would you like me to put the television on? The gang have Netflix working, we can play the Seventy Two Cutest Animals series?”

Snowy stopped lapping up water for a second but kept his head above the bowl. “Meow.”

“Shall I leave the lights on?”

“Meow meow.”

“Okay. Lights off.”

“Meow.”

Sophie gets the TV playing and heads to the door. “See you after the party.”

“Purrrrr.”

When Mattie and Mitch grabbed Snowy’s data from the simulation she was asked if Snowy should be given the ability to talk like Mitch. She’d said yes then quickly changed her mind. Being a Doctor Dolittle and being able to hear her cat give an account of it’s day was a step too far. If it leant how to talk on its own then fine, she’d deal with it when it happened. Not day one.

Door closed Sophie tiptoes comically towards Astrid’s room like one of the meddling kids in Scooby-Doo.

~~~

She quickly stands normally as a door opens ahead on her left.

One of the Emily triplets, Demetria and George step out backwards, looking into the room.

Demetria smiles, “Thanks for letting us clear things up. We’ll see you at the party later Reg? Good. George will be back soon with something to help.” She pulls the door closed and makes OMG eyes at George. The three head further down the corridor, oblivious to Sophie’s presence.

George puts his hands on his head. “How embarrassing! Thanks Pixel, I’d never have thought to go down that line of enquiry in a million years. I’d never have been that open about such issues. I need to talk to Cindy. I’m sure she can whip some up in minutes now we know what the problem is.”

Emily puts a hand on his shoulder, “Or Barbara. There you were thinking he was giving Dem the evils when it was the bra top, not the wearer.”

“And not exactly the evils, extreme jealousy. Underwear jealousy.”

Demetria giggles, “I’ll never be able to hear the phrase _what a load of old bollocks_ again without thinking of him. I never knew you could get pain down there like that. When they’re accidentally hit sure, but not when they’re just hanging. Is that normal?”

George shrugs, “I don’t know. I’d consider mine normal size, his are.. I honestly didn’t know where to look. Had you ever thought of being a nurse Pixel? You handle things very well.”

Emily smirks, “I hope by that you mean one very gently in each hand to confirm the problem. Maybe you designed synth bodies too well George?”

“Mother nature designed those bits, some might say I plagiarised her work. I bump spoke to Leo, he checked Reginald’s stats, there’s no scaling error.”

“We need to be far more open in this world, no stiff upper lip crap, people suffering in silence. He doesn’t want boxer shorts or y fronts, he needs something that’ll give him a lot more support.”

Demetria turns to gaze out of the window, “Can Fred do a mod? Something to give him more natural internal support?”

George shakes his head. “Where would you put a skin pack on a testicle sack? That would be worse than the original problem.”

Sophie stood perfectly still, eyes wide in low level shock having just worked everything out, picturing Emily playing nurse for Renie’s father.

George finally lowers his hands and starts to turn. “Right. I’ll go and see Cindy, you two can go and get ready for the par.. Sophie. Everything okay?”

“Um.. I think I will be. I love your dress Emily.”

“Thanks! Mix the skills of dress makers and chemists and wow, just look at what they can do! Call me Pixel by the way, one of the RGB Pixel Princesses.”

“Okay.” Sophie watches Demetria checking out Pixel’s dress and gets a memory pop up the stack. “Do you think Fred could work out how to make a glue?”

“The boys already have. The hot plastic shooters.”

“Too big. It needs to be smaller. And a different type.”

“For what?”

“Glueing sheets of artificial rubber.”

She has the attention of all three.

Emily glances sideways at Demi, “Someone’s core temperature is rising.”

“Babes! Pyjama material, towels, spun plastic or fine metals like gold, now something like latex? Imagine the tops we could make! Sophie, where did you find it?”

“Looking for more things for the shops. Don’t get too excited, they’re medical sheets, quite small.”

“Medical?”

“The box says they’re Rubber Dam Shields and used by dentists.”

“For what?”

“They make a hole in one and put it around a tooth.”

“Why would they do that?”

“To catch filling material to stop it being swallowed by the patient.”

“Oh. That’s clever. How big are they?”

“Six by eight inches. Thirty six in a box.”

“How many boxes?”

“One hundred. Some pink, green, blue or purple.”

“No white?”

“Not that I’ve seen.”

Demetria turns to Emily. “Three thousand six hundred that small is still a reasonable amount. I think if anyone gets some of it first it should be Reg. It’ll give more support than any other material we’ve got.”

George has a pondering face. “What if it was a material lower section and the rubber was used for the waist band?”

Pixel nods. “That sounds good. Maybe all three of us should go see Cindy? Nice find Sophie, thank you.”

“That’s okay. Was he in a lot of pain?”

“Incredible amounts. Which is why he tried to spend so much time sitting down and was reluctant to join in with other things.”

Sophie recalled an accident caused by a dog running out in front of Toby’s bike. The dog wasn’t hurt, Toby was in agony for ages. “I’ll show you where they are. If we can make waistbands for underwear for Reginald we can make bands for sports clothes can’t we?”

Pixel puts an arm around her, “Sophie, we can use it for all sorts of things. Come with us to see Barbara and Cindy. Awesome find babes. Danny will be proud of you.”

“He will?”

“Back home we called it hack the shop or make the shop. It means looking at something and thinking of uses it wasn’t originally designed for.”

“Like towels for clothes?”

“Yes babes.”

~~~

[Chapter-82](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-82-1)


	82. Chapter 82

Niska looks at her Alfie. “Do you have the message code running?”

“Yes?”

“Send a message, we need a helmet for Peter.”

“Done.”

“Thanks.”

“Emily asks what colour?”

“It’s just a helmet. Which Emily?”

“Does it matter? They’re all the same. She says she’s Emerald.”

Peter stops leaning against the wall. “Shiny black please.”

“Asked.. she says to put your hands out Niska.”

Niska does as asked and a helmet snaps into view with a bang.

Peter jumps. “Fuck! How do you do that? You make my step mum vanish into the road that feels totally solid. Now you make a helmet appear from nowhere.”

“She didn’t vanish. She was deleted.”

“Deleted? You can’t just delete people. It’s not like we’re in a computer program.”

“Says who?”

“Everyone. Well except for Elon Musk. He’s a genius but a bit of a head case.”

“Met him have you?”

“Not yet..”

“We have.”

“Really?”

“Would you like to meet him?”

“Fly to America? If you’re paying.”

“We’ll be flying. Not to quite the location you have in mind. Put this on and get on behind me. Make sure you hold tight.”

Peter’s expression changes. “Got a boyfriend?”

“One. You’re too young. Two. I have a girlfriend. And two daughters.”

“Oh.”

Red mounts up and looks at her Alfie’s display. “Alfie’s done a lookup. We’ve got the address for the prison he’s being held in.”

“Okay.”

Niska climbs on and feels Peter trying to get on behind. “Are you okay?”

“It’s not as easy when you.. oh.”

“What happened?”

“An extra foot rest grew out of the side.”

“Alfie’s rather special.”

The two bikes accelerate away.

“Can you hear me Peter?”

There’s no reply.

‘Alfie, message Emily, ask for bump comms to be added to the helmet.’

‘Done.. she says give them a moment to code something.’

‘Okay.’

~~~

Mia and Toby were watering the crate garden.

Toby carefully pours water into the smaller bag Mia was holding. It had been perforated dozens of times with a medal pin Prince James had found in his case to make a gentle watering bag. “Just the thought of soup is making me feel hungry.”

“There won’t be any signs of shoots for many days yet. If at all. The seeds are so old maybe none will germinate.”

“It only takes one to start a new crop right?”

“For many crops a minimum of two. For pollination.”

“Without bees?”

“We’ll have to do it ourselves by hand. Very gently.”

“Here comes happy.”

Mia turns her head to see Sophie skipping up to them with sheets of paper. “Hello Sophie.”

“Are you growing potatoes? That would be fun.”

“So Laura can say hello potato to you and a vegetable?”

Sophie nods and takes a sheet off the top of the set. “We’re having a party. You _must_ attend.”

“Why?”

“We’ll be playing games and singing songs. Everyone needs to submit a favourite song title. In the next hour.”

Toby reads the note at the bottom and shrugs, “Sounds fun. We need a bit of fun.”

“Good. What are you growing in this one?”

Mia recalled the seed planting. “Tomatoes here, carrots here, parsnips, peas.”

“Mmm. I like pea soup.”

“We need some mint then. It’s in the catalogue, I’ll go find some. It grows at four inches per month.”

“So we could have mint tea soon? Coffee gets so so boring after a while.”

Toby pours the last of the water from the big bag into the watering bag. “I’ll come with you Mia, maybe we can find other fast growing herbs?”

Sophie has a brainwave. “Tofu’s a vegetable isn’t it?”

“Made from the soy bean. Which takes forty five to sixty five days to grow to harvestable size.” Mia tips the last of the water into the adjacent crate, grabs Toby’s hand and heads for the lift in a hurry. “Something to cook with! Sophie I love you!”

“I love you too! Anyone else on this deck?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“I’m coming with you then.” She gives chase. “I just helped George, Demetria and Pixel with something, Cindy says we should be able to make all sorts of things with the things I found.”

“Different clothes?”

“Umhm.”

~~~

Mia looks distant as they wait for the lift. “Chillies and peppers and..”

Toby squeezes her hand. “These are a few of my favourite things?”

“They are.”

“I meant like Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.”

Mia gives him the most confused look.

“Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?”

“No.”

Sophie jumps up and down. “Cinema two! Cinema two! After the party.”

~~~

Niska tried again. ‘Can you hear me Peter?’

“Hi! Built in microphone and speaker? Well wicked! You sound very clear, no wind noise at all.”

‘That’s because I’m talking to you with my mind not my voice.’

“Awesome, like whispering with the volume right down.”

“I suppose so. I’ve had friends check you and your father out..”

“Like those police vetting things?”

‘Way deeper. We know about the bullying, and the boy who’s nose you broke. And the toads you rescued from the bottom of the garden one hot summer.’

“How? Only Dad and me know about that.”

‘Think.’

“I am thinking. You’d had to be spying on us for years.. or a mind reader.”

‘I knew nothing about you until today. So it can’t be the first.’

“The second is impossible.”

‘You had a crush on Katie Williamson when you were in junior school.’

“ _Nobody_ knows about that! _Nobody_.”

‘Red and I do.’

“Are you some sort of angels?”

‘We’re not of this world.’

“Wicked! That means good by the way.”

‘We’re angels of death. You were lucky you were here.’

“You didn’t know about me?”

‘No.’

“So I would have gone into a care home? Better than being stuck with the she devil I guess.” He tightens his grip.

‘We also know about the role your mother played in your father’s imprisonment.’

“So she did do it?”

‘No. But she did arrange it.’

“Bitch!”

Niska smiled. They shared something in common, the same nickname for Price.

“This is it.”

‘We know.’

“How fast did we go?”

‘Way too fast for the police to catch us.’

Peter slides off the back and unbuckles the helmet. “These are cool. My friends would like them.”

“Do you have many?”

“A couple.”

Red gets all of her stars and knives and thinks about hiding them.

“Red. Look behind you.”

On the other side of the road was a shop with whited out windows and a sign.

~~~

CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT

~~~

[Chapter-83](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-83-1)


	83. Chapter 83

Red beamed. “Ideal!”

Niska unzips and peels the tablet from her belly.

Peter grins, “I did wonder why your tummy felt like that.”

Niska raises an eyebrow, “Watch what you think, we might be listening still.”

“Eh? You can’t listen to thoughts.”

“Says who?”

“Okay. Name the three colours I just thought of.”

Niska bumps to Alfie. He messages and bumps back.

“Why are boys so gross? Puke orange, snot green and shit brown.”

“Oh. My. _God!_ ”

Niska gets another bump. “And no, I won’t kiss you.”

Peter blushes, “Can you turn that off before I really embarrass myself?”

Niska nods and bumps.

“Thanks.”

Niska zooms the map and taps. There’s a shattering of glass from inside the shop. “Oops. The page said the space was big enough?”

“What did you just do?”

“Brought a couple of rooms closer.”

“That’s not.. I won’t say it.”

“Possible. For angels of death in this world anything is possible.”

“Are you really angels of death? It doesn’t sound nice.”

Red steps across the road, raises her voice, “We’re normally super nice. We’re having time off for good behaviour.”

“This is your time off?”

“It is.”

“You’re pulling my.. leg.”

“I’m not.” Red uses a knife to force the lock. “We’re in.” She opens the door and steps inside.

Niska rushes across the road. “Time to drop off the weapons and change into something more appropriate. Alfies, in you come.”

Peter steps inside and looks past the rail to the weapons room. “Wow! You’ve got your own armoury!”

“Off limits. Back by the door please.”

“Oh.”

“Door. Now!”

“You’re as bad as my step mother. I only wanted to look.”

“Red, can you store these for me please?”

“Of course.”

Peter jumps out of the way to let the bikes past. “They look nasty.”

“Razor sharp.”

“So why aren’t you cut?”

“Angels of..”

“Yeah. You said. You’re not seeing Dad dressed like that are you?”

“No. What would you suggest?”

“What sorts of things do you like?”

“What would you recommend?”

“I’m a bloke, I wear blokes clothes.”

“But you like women. What’s made you stop and go wow?”

“Um.. um..”

Red returns from the other room. “We could read your mind again if it’s easier?”

“Burnt yellow knitted crop top jumper with ruffle frill hem and collar with checked black, grey and white trousers with a ruffle hem!”

“Easy there tiger!”

Peter frowned. “What just happened?”

“You spoke your mind.”

“I don’t even know what a ruffle is!”

“You must do. Maybe at the subconscious level.”

“Not at any level.”

“How cropped?”

“Um.. not much. The lady showed maybe six centimetres of belly. I couldn’t see her belly button, the trouser top was high.”

Niska taps away on the tablet and waits a moment. Then a bit more. “Oh. Cindy’s joined in.”

“Who’s Cindy?”

“One of our younger fashion experts.”

“Is she an angel too?”

“She’s not of this world..”

“Yes then.”

The map on the tablet is replaced with an image.

Niska turns it and holds it in portrait orientation. “Like this?”

“You said you’d not read my mind again!”

“We didn’t. This is from your description.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

The lad steps closer. “You’re right. Sorry. This one has a tighter knit. The one the lady had on was.. um... more open? Not as tightly knitted?”

“You like this though?”

“Sure.”

Niska taps and her outfit changes in an instant.

Peter recoils. “Fuck! You really _are_ angels. Does it mean I die today?”

“Yes and no.”

“Oh shit! I don’t want..”

“Shush. The no bit is that you leave here. The yes that you get to live in a better place.”

“Like a ghost?”

“No, in a body. I shouldn’t be telling someone so young but the sex is _amazing_.”

“They have sex in heaven?”

“It’s not exactly..”

“Oh God! You’re taking me to hell!” He backs towards the doors.

Niska rolls her eyes. “No. No no no no no. It’s not hell. It’s not heaven. It’s _real_.”

“Real?”

“The opposite of this place.”

“Wait. Are you saying..”

“YES!”

“Wicked! When do we go?”

Niska turns to give a sarcastic look to Red. ‘One world in, _please_ say they’re not all going to be like this!’

‘Don’t look at me, I’m thinking the same!’

Niska undoes the bow on the trousers and reties it a little tighter. “As soon as your father agrees to go.”

“Oh Dad’ll agree. No doubt about that.”

Red steps in front of the mirror. “What else did you have in your wow list?”

“Um.. give me a moment.” He closes his eyes. “A turtle neck top in racing green with jeans.”

“A simple top and jeans? No ruffles or crop?”

“But it’s racing green. Against that hair.. you’ll see.”

The tablet is accepted. “Green turtleneck and..”

“ _Racing_. Not any old green.”

Red removes all of the text she’d typed and starts again. “Corrected. How many times have you seen that combination?”

“Once was enough.”

The tablet beeps. “Let’s see if you’re right.” Tap.

Peter whistles. “See.”

Red checks her reflection and pulls all her hair back.

“Not like that.”

“How?”

“May I?”

“May you what?”

“Do your hair.”

“Go on then.”

“If you could squat down?”

~~~

[Chapter-84](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-84-1)


	84. Chapter 84

Sophie wanted to cry. “Who’d want to do such a horrible thing?”

The small glass container marked wheat was smashed, the contents on the floor and ground almost to a powder.

Mia got on hands and knees and looked under the cabinet. “Someone in a hurry. Sophie, Toby, have either of you seen drinking straws during your inventory checks?”

Sophie gets down. “No, why?”

“I can see three grains that rolled away. They’re out of reach.”

Toby got onto the floor, “Where?”

Mia crawls backwards and points, “Just under there.”

Toby gets his ear to the cold floor. “I see them. Let me go check with the Dragon Deconstruction team. There might be a thin pipe we can use. Failing that we carefully rock the cabinet back and quickly grab them.”

“With all those glass tubes and seeds? Let’s try finding thin pipes or straws first.”

Sophie takes a closer look. “We could do a Dozer couldn’t we?”

“Soph?”

“Blow it from the other side.”

“It’s worth a try.” Toby gets up and runs for the far end of the row.

Mia puts a hand up for a high five. “You’re getting creative with your thinking Sophie. Well done.”

“Emily, Pixel, said I was doing something like hacking the shop. I’m hacking the ship. Oh!”

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I found some dental sheets Barbara and Cindy are going to use as elastic. There was something else in the same crate. If we cut them down could we use the fingers of medical examination gloves to germinate seeds in?”

“If we had suitable soil to grow them in.”

“Hello!”

“Toby?”

“Get ready to catch.”

“We’ll overclock. I’m ready. Sophie?”

“Ready.”

The grains roll forwards a little as Toby gives a short fast puff.

“Again Toby.”

This time they don’t move.

“Was that okay Soph?”

“They didn’t move.”

“Blast. We need a pipe then. And something to store all of them in.”

“Three grains?”

“Hundreds. You’ve not seen this row. It’s a mess. Some of these will need sowing and identifying from the plants that grow.”

Mia gets up and puts a hand out for Sophie. “What are you seeing on the labels Toby?”

“Where to start.. there’s got to be sixty or so empty containers on the floor.”

Sophie takes Mia’s hand and gets up, “The bitch must have got in here earlier. Why bother? She must know we don’t need food.”

“We don’t need it, but do enjoy it.” Mia leads Sophie to the end of the row. “By denying us things we enjoy she’s trying to wear us down mentally.”

Toby hears the comment and bumps. ‘Nepal, can you ask a couple of your buddies to guard the crates of coffee and Prosecco please?’ He sees the two enter his row. “What do you think? Worth rescuing?”

Sophie can’t fight the tears anymore.

Mia holds arms out. “Cuddle?”

Toby watched the two share a hug, kept silent. ‘Danny mate, can you make a small hand held vacuum?’

‘Sure. Wet or dry?’

‘Dry. And it mustn’t damage the seeds it’s going to be used to pick up.’

‘Seeds?’

‘Some of the bitch’s handy work. I’m in the seed vault with Mia and Sophie.’

‘Shit. I’ll talk to Mario, I think he’s got Alfie working flat out on more shoes so nobody’s got bare feet tonight.’

‘Cheers mate. Give the shoes priority.’

‘Sure.’

Sophie wipes eyes. “I hate her.”

Toby sighs, “Who doesn’t? I bumped to Danny, he’s going to help make us a little vacuum to safely pick them all up. We should leave them where they are and focus on the things we want.”

“Okay.” Sophie looks down the row. “Do we have mushrooms?”

“Spores? Maybe. Thinking of breakfast?”

“We’ve emptied a number of the wooden crates now. With the ship’s air so dry they’ve been fine. What if we smashed a few up into tiny bits, added water and mushrooms, would they help break the wood down?”

Mia hugs tighter and raises Sophie off the floor, spins around. “We can make a giant composter!”

Toby grins, “The Dragon’s inner skin is made from aluminium, we could reshape some into a compost bin.”

Mia lowers Sophie down. “If the others have stripped it of all usable parts why not make the whole thing a composter? The internal heat helps a composter break things down.”

“That would be massive. How about taking just the nose? If so we should ask quick, Wrench, Mav and Spider are stripping heat insulation off the lower sections.”

Mia pictures it in her mind. “The top two meters then. And something to give it a new base.”

“Bumped. Awesome call Soph. Seen any other things we can reuse?”

“Lots. I’m not sure what for yet though.”

“Let’s get what we came for, leave everything else until we have clean up tools.”

~~~

George sat in his room and swiped his way through more images on the small media device, what had originally been only a music player and simple web browser. Sapphire had dropped their one in with what she’d called a new Tinder like app she’d written with Mattie. They all seemed so eager to help. He had to swipe left to reject or right to accept. He also had to be mindful of where he touched when swiping. The position of his finger gave data as to what it was he’d liked or disliked. Figure or face as Sapphire had summarised it. Mattie had gone on to add that it was more detailed than that, would get hints on hair, eyes, nose, mouth, shoulders, chest, waist, hips and legs. A swipe left could for example mean no, but especially not the chest. A right swipe yes, especially the eyes. They’d both sat with him for a test run, shown the results. Ten swipes and a shake of the device revealed the blend. What he’d have called a morph. The demo data contained photographs and a few cartoon characters with emphasised features. Elsa from Frozen, Jessica Rabbit, Judy Jetson and Sophie’s suggestion Velma Dinkley. The results had taken them all by surprise. George had hastily swiped left then laughed. Hopefully the more photographs he went through the more he’d get closer to something they both liked. His new partner and himself.

The task of working out what personality traits to pick from each of the women helping had been thrown back at them with a “If you love me you choose. The top two from each of you.” Talk about debate and throwing the cat amongst the pigeons! He’d heard women squabbling years ago. Arguing about why they thought each other were great was an interesting change. Positive arguing.

Knock knock.

George put down the device and went to the door. “Hello?”

No answer.

“Hello?”

Still no answer. Forehead to the wooden door he listens for electrical signals. Nothing. He opens the door and looks out. The hall was empty. How odd. As he goes to step back into the room he notices a slip of paper with tiny handwriting.

~~~

_I love you too George. As I can’t be part of the personality here’s five dress designs for your new lady to pick from. Cindy’s going to help me make the one you pick._

~~~

_Love Odi._

~~~

Below was a URL.

~~~

George leans forwards and looks both ways. “Son?” The corridor was empty and silent. ‘Odi?’

‘Hello George.’

‘Did you just drop a note at my door?’

‘Yes George.’

‘Why didn’t you stop and say hello?’

‘Sorry George. Cindy’s been so busy making dresses for everyone else she didn’t have time to make her own. I’m heading back to help.’

‘That’s very considerate of you son. I’ll see you later then?’

‘Of course George.’

George steps inside and picks up the device. It had gone totally black. It’s given a shake. Pixels change from black to pink.

~~~

DESIGN

SUBMISSION

COMPLETED

~~~

“Oh my dear lord!” ‘Sapphire!’

‘George?’

‘The device, it’s saying design submission completed.’

‘You got through the images fast, well done.’

‘I hadn’t!’

‘Oh dear. How many do you think you’d reviewed?’

‘One moment..’ George recalls all the swipes. ‘Just over a couple of thousand.’

‘More than enough.’

‘But I didn’t see the final results!’

‘Then you’re in for a surprise. None of them looked like the back of a bus George, she won’t be unattractive.’

‘None of you are. And looks are only skin deep.’

‘So people say.’

‘I’ll pick a dress for Odi and Cindy to make. I assume they’ll get to see her design?’

‘And one of my sisters or myself for hair styling.’

‘So I can see?’

‘No. Spoilers. Think of this as a blind date George.’

‘I better be on my best behaviour..’

‘Chill George. She’s based on us, she’ll like you whatever you’re doing.’

‘Have you all decided on attributes then?’

Mattie bumps. ‘George?’

‘Yes?’

‘Pick a dress. Now.’

‘Right now?’

‘Then Odi and Cindy can get it made, focus on getting themselves ready for the party, not have it at the back of their minds.’

‘One moment then.’ George closes his eyes and uses his mind rather than the device. A code gift from David. ‘Number four.’

‘Four? You’ve checked them out already?’

‘I just took a look at them all. Definitely number four.’

There’s silence for a moment.

‘George?’

‘Yes Mattie?’

‘I’ve just reviewed the server log. You started all of the image downloads two hundred milliseconds after the HTTP request. All five PNG files requested in the same tiny window. Your device can’t do that, it doesn’t render images fast enough for you to have swiped through them that fast.’

‘Um..’

‘How did you see them?’

‘Some beta code David gave me. Running in my head. He said your sister Ruby had something similar in our world after she became a synth.’

‘Did she now? Nobody remembered to tell me.’

‘Here’s the code path if you want to try it.’ It’s bumped. ‘Think URL Render followed by the URLs you want to see. End Render to finish.’

‘URL of anything?’

‘JPEG, PNG, PDF too I think.’

~~~

Mattie looks around the room to see who was doing what. “Bunny, couldn’t get me a coffee could you?”

“Sure.” He gets up. “Anyone else?” He gets head shakes. “Okay. Two coffees.”

Mattie goes back to the keyboard, does a text based search on his database and makes a URL in her head for the top image flagged as Leo’s with a fact store link to Mattie. Code grabbed from the URL George had bumped she does the URL Render thought and gasps.

“You okay babes?”

End Render! With the floating mind’s eye image gone and view of the terminal back Mattie taps the return key a few times, looks at the results from the search. O not 0! “Frigging hell! Dead pixel!”

“Pixel? Oh my God! Ems!”

“Screen pixel, not Emily Pixel.”

“Pheww. Don’t do that Mattie! You almost gave me a pump failure! Why the gasp?”

“Um.. I just realised something was wrong with code I was typing.”

She’d got a character wrong when making the URL. She tries again. That was more like it. She recalled being in the room, the smile she gave Leo, his comment on the flattering light coming in to the room through the window. Their only visit to Chartwell. End Render. The wrong URL is given another look. It wasn’t that outrageous, but it was definitely _not_ her. She’d never sat on an empty island beach of fine white sand without a stitch on, only a large necklace of seashells hiding her nipples. The left hand.. it had a familiar ring.. Dolphin girl! End Render. With Leo still out of the room she launches a GUI, types in some numbers and scrolls through the pages of results looking for clues. Towards the bottom she finds a long ID number, copies and pastes it into her text login. GUI closed the pasted ID gets a query built around it. “And the winner is.. Frigging hell! Mattie Zero! If you hear or see anyone coming Ems you cough okay?”

“Babes?”

“Please.”

“Okay?”

Another minute of extended searches to check dates confirms her suspicions. Zero’s honeymoon, a private beach Leo had sailed them to. God she looked good. The wet hair, beading water on her nicely tanned skin. She thought about what she was seeing. It was pretty much the same figure she had. Max and Leo were right. Flattering light made all the difference. Light that gave shape. Something Max had said when he’d got a camera came flooding back. _When you stand in front of a mirror to see your reflection you deny your body the light others see you in_. He wasn’t wrong. Maybe she should revise her own self image. She does searches related to the date, finds Zero’s wedding day and a further photo. “Wow what a dress! Okay, back to normal.”

“Babes? What _are_ you up to?”

“Debugging life. Panic over.”

“You’re looking way happier than bug squish happy. Spill the beans.”

Mattie instinctively grabbed her coffee been pendant. “Um.. sorry, private thoughts.”

“Good enough to put that dress on this evening?”

“Maybe.”

“Do it. For Leo.” Cough.

Mattie quickly Alt-Tab switches back to the monitor session to watch Nis and Red. “Thanks Bunny.”

“Do what for me?”

~~~

[Chapter-85](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-85-1)


	85. Chapter 85

Red walked by Niska’s side with Peter two steps ahead. ‘He’s good.’

‘He has a good eye for style and colour. He’s going to enjoy working with Barbara and Cindy. If Fred’s experiment works maybe they can do other colours.’

‘Emerald and Sapphire would be nice.’

Peter opens the door. “Ladies.”

“Thank you young man.”

The prison officer on reception looks at the three. “How can I help you?”

“We’re here to see my Dad.”

“Have you booked your visit?”

“No?”

“Not another one.” The woman sighs and gets into a scripted response. “You need to book your social visit to a prisoner in England or Wales via the gov dot uk web site. You’ll need the prisoner number, their date of birth and dates of birth for all visitors coming with you.”

“We have a tablet with us.”

“You’ll get an email confirming your visit. It takes one to three days.”

“Oh.”

“And the prisoner must add you to their visitor list _before_ you can book a visit.”

“Before? Can you get a message to him that his son wants to visit?”

“I’m not a prisoner PA.”

“Dad shouldn’t be here! He didn’t kill anyone! He was watching Top Gear all night with me!”

The woman’s left eyebrow rises. “Top Gear? You must be Peter Price. Everyone here knows that story.”

“It’s not a story it’s the truth!”

“So he says. The synth said otherwise and synths don’t lie on account of them being dumb machines.”

Niska looks sideways with only eyes. ‘We should have done more research. Are we the only sentient synths in this world?’

‘Good question. Alfie? .. Damn. Out of range or this place is shielded.’

Niska checks the tablet, steps closer to the officer. “We have reason to believe the synth was hacked, modded, given false memories.”

“Then you need to find a lawyer and go through the appeal process.”

“We need to talk to Terry.”

“Not without a booked visit.”

“Do you have family?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to see them again?”

“Are you threatening me?” She slides her hand towards a button.

Niska overclocks, grabs a pen off the counter, buries the nib in the wood a centimetre from the button. The officer’s hand slide is brought to a halt by the pen. “No, I’m just wondering if you know what it’s like to miss family.”

“How did you move so fast?”

“I’m a synth.”

“Synths don’t do what you’ve done. They sure don’t talk or walk like you two.”

“We do. We’ll see you in a few days. Maybe. Come on Peter, this is a waste of time.”

“But I need to see Dad!”

Niska ruffles his hair. “Don’t argue with your auntie Candy.”

Peter goes to say something and changes his mind. “Sorry.”

Niska smiles at the officer. “Where would prisoners be at this time of day?”

“Safe in their cells.”

~~~

Outside Niska types fast as she crosses the road. “We need to talk to your father. He can stay in his cell. Who’s to say _where_ his cell is. Cells are small right?”

Peter nods, “Tiny.”

Niska taps. “Good.”

“Why did you say your name was Candy?”

“It’s a nickname for when I’m being nice and sweet.”

Again he goes to say something and thinks better of it.

There’s a smashing of glass.

Red opens the door to the shop. “Oops. First shop lights, now the mirror. I hope none of you are superstitious.”

Peter steps inside as sirens start wailing in the prison. “Holy flying fuck! You brought his cell here?”

There’s a banging from behind the metal door. “HELLO!”

Niska races over and slides open the small hatch. “Peter Price?”

“Yes? What the hell just happened? Has there been an earth quake?”

“No.”

“Bomb gone off?”

“No.”

“So why did my things fall off my shelf?”

“We moved your cell.”

Terry has a good laugh. “I like you. Most of the officers don’t have a sense of humour. You must be new, I’ve not seen you before. I’m Terry.”

“Niska. Your son is with us.”

“Peter?”

“Dad!”

Terry gets close to the door. “Son! Eh? Why don’t I see the corridor? Why aren’t they in uniforms?”

“As I said a moment ago, we moved your cell. Red, can you ask one of the team to unlock the door?”

“You’ve got the tablet.”

Red Alfie beeps his horn. “Asked.”

The lock clunks.

Niska pulls open the door. “Thank you. We have a few questions for you Terry.”

Terry races to his son for a hug, tears flowing.

“Dad! These ladies say Gemma set you up!”

“I’ve had my suspicions. Being cooped up for so long has given me a lot of time to think.”

Red gets next to them. “Peter says you like science fiction movies?”

“Love them!”

The sound of more sirens approaching gets Niska to the window. She scrapes a tiny bit of the white paint from the glass and looks out. “Lots of police are arriving. Some are heading this way!”

Red spins around. “Damn. The shop door’s not fully closed. Nis, room move! Now!”

~~~

[Chapter-86](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-86-1)


	86. Chapter 86

Chief Superintendent Shaw lets go of the door handle seconds after a sonic bang and rapid air rush has the door sucked closed with a snap. “Fuck!” He moves slowly, face screwed up.

“Are you alright chief?”

“My wrist. It’s gone again.”

“Allow me.”

“Thank you DI Voss.”

Karen pulls open the door. “I’ve seen explosions push doors open, never an implosion pull one closed before. I’m surprised the glass didn’t break.”

Shaw steps inside, “What a mess!”

Karen follows and starts processing data. Light fittings were still swinging. Or what was left of them.

“First impressions?”

Karen motions up at the lights. “Something was here then left.”

Shaw looks up. “That’s impossible surely?”

Karen wanted to sigh. Surely Shaw. Not the brightest of Chiefs. “The evidence says otherwise. I’ll call for the forensics team, have them take prints off the door.”

“Whatever it was it was consistent.”

Karen looks at all the half light fittings slowing their swinging. Shaw was right there. Something had sliced the lower half off with great accuracy. At the other end of the shop a builder’s trestle ladder platform stood diagonally across the floor. Something about it looked off. She goes over to examine it. “Chief. Come see this.”

“What is it?”

“Something was here. Then not.”

Shaw joins her and looks at the perfect triangle chopped out of the wood topped metal trestle. “No burn marks on the wood, no ragged edges on the metal below, no sign of saw teeth marks. Or any dust or shards on the floor. Whatever cut that was very sharp.”

“I don’t think it was cut. And look at the alignment of the triangle. It’s the edge of a rectangle, aligned with the walls of the shop. Whatever left and caused that rush of air took the triangle away and half of the light fittings.”

“That’s impossible. Isn’t it?”

“It should be. If you stay outside the door until forensics get here I’ll see if..” she turns to see who was opening the door. “Pete’s okay.”

Pete smiles awkwardly. “We’ll not find out why money left the family account to pay Silas. Price has vanished.”

“Vanished?”

“His cell too. Chopped out perfectly from the building. CCTV doesn’t show any cranes in the street. It does show someone we know in reception..”

“Who?”

“Niska. With Price’s son and an unknown lady.”

Karen steps to the door. “I won’t be a moment.” She pulls her phone out and dials. In the street she gets it to her ear. “Niska. Where are you? The estate? Do you have witnesses? Good. You’re all still part of the consortium working on the ship and sky lift aren’t you? Can you give Elon Musk my number, ask him to call me. I think I’ve got proof that his theory is correct. And his friend Max Tegmark’s. Yes. I’m on the site now. Nis I’ve seen it with my own eyes! I’m about to review CCTV for myself, see other world you. Yes. It’s that or you’ve been cloned. And the things I’ve seen in the building opposite the prison, they’re impossible unless you have access to playing with the rules of physics.”

~~~

The group of four and bikes get out of the small cell. It had been cosy for a few seconds. Red leaves them for a moment.

Niska shakes Terry’s hand. “Good choice. You’ll be stuck on a ship for a year with us but have a lot more freedom.”

“I’ll be with my son, that’s all that matters.”

Peter hugs his father. “These bikes are real in the real world Dad. Can I have one?”

“Let’s see when we’re there.”

“That’s a no then.”

“It’s not, I’d just like to see they’re safe. Riding around on a ship on a bike sounds dangerous.”

Red opens the door and steps back inside. “What was your selection criteria when you picked a map pin Nis?”

“Somewhere north.”

“Scotland I’d guess. We’re in what was an old car show room in the middle of nowhere. I’ve just seen a man walking his dog. He was wearing a kilt.”

“Did he have good legs?”

“For an eighty year old, yes. Shall we go?”

“Terry said yes.” Niska taps away on the tablet. “We’ll be back immediately. The build machines will take a couple of hours to get your new bodies ready. Red and I will be there to welcome you onboard. Here we go.”

~~~

Mattie watches Niska and Red’s eye colour return. “What a frigging mess!”

Niska frowns, “Which part?”

Mattie spins a monitor around to show the inside of the building, Shaw and Drummond looking at the sliced lights. “Worse, Ems monitor code caught Karen call her Nis, she’s about to have a call with their Elon. These were supposed to be stealth missions! The Captain’s not going to like this. One world visited and it’s about to destabilise fast.”

“We found Price and freed a wrongly imprisoned father.”

“I’m fine with that. It’s the fallout their Elon is likely to create that won’t go down well. You’ve thrown a pebble in the lake. The ripples will be far reaching.”

Niska looked at Mattie and wondered how to respond. The young woman was sounding older, wiser, more concerned. “Could we put shells back in their place?”

“And how do we explain the missing cell?”

“I.. don’t know.”

Red squints at the monitor. “Has anyone stepped or leaned into the space the cell was in?”

“No?”

“Install a super high res wall monitor in front of the cell like the one the Captain has on the bridge. With a motion tracked view. Then make it glitch so people realise it’s there. Put the cell back behind it.”

“And how do we explain the mess in the shop, sliced lights and stuff?”

“Put a super high power laser on the ground behind the shop with a load of tiny mirrors.”

Emily types fast, “I like your thinking. It’s not perfect and Karen will no doubt find holes in it but it should create enough doubt in other people’s minds to defuse things. People will question how the screen panel got there but it’s a start.”

Mattie spins her chair to see her friend. “Can we give Karen amnesia?”

“Cut her memory like Zero cut ours?”

“Yes.”

“Five minutes?”

“Ten.”

“Done.”

“Eh?”

“Leo helped me preemptively research code just in case.”

“Thanks Bunny.”

~~~

Karen looked at her ringing phone and wondered what she was doing. She knew they were at the prison to interview Terry Price about payments to Silas Capek. Why was she stood on the other side of the road? The ringing from an unknown number stops.

“Kay?”

She turns to see Pete. “Hi.”

“Everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is fine.” She wasn’t about to admit she had just had a fault. Or that she was a synth. Nobody needed to know that. Others knowing there was a sentient synth in the STTF would cause a media frenzy. “Shall we see Price?”

“He’s gone!”

“Gone?”

“His cell’s missing.”

“You’ve seen it?”

“Not first hand.”

“Let’s go see the evidence for ourselves. Fancy a bag of chips later?”

“Is the sky blue?”

~~~

[Chapter-87](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-87-1)


	87. Chapter 87

Real world Karen walks into the restaurant and takes a seat. “Good evening ladies, you look lovely Fee, Molly, Qi.”

Molly frowns, “Why Fee first?”

“Because her name starts with an F.”

“What’s an eff?”

Mia strokes her hair, “A letter of the alphabet. Anti Sophie can help teach you letters tomorrow.”

“Not now?”

“You need to practice your special thing for the party.”

Molly frowns grumpily. “Anti tell.”

“She only said the three of you wanted to practice something, not what it was.”

“Okay.” The frown fades away. “Anti!”

Sophie steps up to their table. “Ready?”

“Ready Anti!”

“Come on then.” Sophie helps the three off the table one at a time. “Shall we sing the Hi Ho song?”

Qi shakes her head, “Not working, playing Anti.”

“Okay, how about five little ducks?”

Qi raises thumb and middle finger. “Five.”

“Base two. Well done. Come on my three little ducks, let’s go practice.”

~~~

Karen watches them go. “Nice little romper suits they’re all in.”

Mia turns to give her soon to be sister in law a nice smile. “Astrid designed them, Barbara made them.”

Astrid watches her youngest daughter leave the room. “Flower buttons designed by Flash and Max, printed by Mario and Peaches. Triple layers of the pyjama material for strength.”

Coffee poured Karen gives Mia a knowing smile.

“Karen?”

“While doing checks Pete, Carly and the James I found something you’ll like.”

“What sort of thing?”

“A deck.” Karen’s expression turns mischievous.

“What sort of deck?”

“Not cards.”

“Karen!”

“The crew that were supposed to join the ship, do you know anything about them?”

“Only that some were to be original human, some synthetic.”

“And what do the vast majority of humans do, apart from breathe and breed?”

“Eat and drink?”

“And how much food does the average human consume a day?”

“Depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things, two and a half thousand calories for men, two thousand for women.”

“I’m told this ship has been traveling for hundreds of years. If it was supposed to be crewed by eaters where does hundreds of millions of man days of food come from? The ship can’t stop in a port like a cruise ship.”

“They’d have to..” Mia’s eyes open wide.

“Exactly!”

“.. grow it.”

“On the gas cloud processor deck there’s a set of pipes that run to another deck.”

“For growing?”

“After the party I’ll introduce you to the farm factory level. It looks like they were all going to be vegetarians. Do you know what mycoprotein is?”

“A form of single-cell protein as produced especially for human consumption. Can you show me now? We have a few minutes.”

“Why not? We don’t want to be the first to the party.”

Astrid knocks back her drink. “I’m going to check on Niska. I’ll see you at the party ladies.”

~~~

At the lift Karen presses the call button and avoids eye contact with Mia. “Do you know anything about our ultimate destination?”

“Only that it will support life.”

“What if it already does? Will we introduce new species that wipe out what’s there?”

“You mean will we be a mistake? We’ve already voted on the issue. We’ll do extensive surveys before the introduction of any DNA from Earth. We’ll be caretakers of our new world, not destroyers.”

“What if there’s intelligent life already?”

“We don’t want a conflict, we’d have to find another planet.”

“After travelling for..” Karen frowns, steps sideways and gets right up against the wall and puts both hands and an ear to it.

“Is there.. do you have a thing about walls?”

Karen turns a hand out to say stop.

Mia puts her audio sensitivity to maximum.

Two seconds later the lift arrives. “Strange. Mia, let’s go.”

Mia steps inside and gets to the opposite side to the controls. There’s a faint sound. “You weren’t imagining it. I’ve just heard something too.”

Karen gets to the panel and presses the alarm sign.

“Hi. Sam here.”

“Hello Samantha. Can you tell if there’s a lift carriage parked close to where we are?”

“One moment, I need to check another screen.” There’s the sound of shoe heels on a hard floor. “Okay, so you’re calling me from carriage two.. two where’s two.. here you are. You’re at the doors closest to the restaurant. There are two other carriages parked nearby, one to the right, one down to the left on one of the diagonal tracks. Is there a problem?”

“Can you send this one up a floor in a moment, then bring each of the other two to this location?”

“Should I ask some James to attend?”

“No, Mia and I will be fine.”

“Sure?”

“I am. We’re stepping out.. Mia.”

Mia does a fast little step with her dress restricting movement a little. “Ready Sammy.”

The doors close.

Five seconds later doors open and Snowy darts out and is caught by Karen.

Mia steps inside and taps the control, taps the alarm. “Thank you Sammy, we’ve got the joyrider.”

“Joyrider?”

“Sophie’s cat.”

“In a lift?”

“He must have slipped out and gone exploring. We’ll get him to Sophie.”

“Okay. We’re all coming down, Flash and Max have confirmed the remote console is good.”

Karen steps in, “I’ll show you the deck in the morning now if that’s okay?”

“That would be fine.”

~~~

[Chapter-88](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-88-1)


	88. Chapter 88

Samantha kept quiet. This was his time to get in the zone.

Nepal looks down from the mirror, takes his old MUS tags from the dressing table, hangs them around his neck. After looking at his reflection for a while longer he stands, pulls up a zip. Next a new glove is carefully slipped on. “What do you think Sammy?”

Samantha bounces eyebrows, “Ideal. Say Shamone, put hand to head, do a spin and moon walk.”

The big synth does as asked, “Not easy in these!”

Samantha claps, “Good enough, Mr Jackson would applaud you too!”

“Thanks. I’m all set for this evening.”

~~~

Max, Max, Flash, Frank and Dozer watch Carly race around the shipping container, empty crate and Dragon rocket engine parkour course.

“It’s awesome!” She jumps and somersaults, catches a fuel line and swings around it, drops onto the floor. “Thanks guys!”

Max watches her head back for another lap, hands hammer and nails to Frank. “Carly, you need to make that your last one. You need to charge and change for the party.”

“I’m good! Better than good!” She leaps a twelve foot gap, rolls across two crates and stands. “I’m FANTASTIC!”

“We know you’re good but there’s no need to boast.”

Carly leaps for a rope and grabs it with hands, swings and grabs with feet, lets go with her hands and slides downwards along it inverted. “Max baby, I’m not talking about my skills but my charge level.” She grabs his head and swings closer for an inverted kiss. “I’m at seventy eight percent!”

“After all we did today, all that running, no floss and little drink? That’s not possible.”

“Au contraire mon amour.” She tucks up and drops, lands like a cat. “Thanks to some engineers who just can’t resist a challenge. Especially when a lady flutters her eyes..”

“Carly? What have you done now?”

“It’s not so much what I’ve done, but Elon, Buzz, Wrench, Maverick, Dan and the Mitch brothers.”

“Enough games, what have they done?”

“The SpaceX suit I’m in, it’s not just for protection. It’s charging me as I run.”

“How? Where’s the battery?”

“Which firm was king of battery power?”

“Tesla.”

She pulls air seals and unzips it half way, peels it off her shoulders, “See the wires inside?”

Max does so. “It’s electric?”

“Batteries instead of air. Like an old school phone charger case.”

“It’s charging you how?”

“The sculpted thing across my shoulders and upper back would have held an emergency air reserve for humans allowing them to switch life support packs. Now it’s holding a coil driver and some battery cells from the Dragon. This is the Synth Mission Suit Beta.”

“Mission suit?”

“Power boost suit. Whatever you want to call it. It’ll let us be away from a shuttle or the ship longer when we get to the new world.”

“I see. They plan to make a few do they?”

“Adapt as many suits as they can. There’s one with your name on it.”

“There is?”

“You think my handsome prince is staying at home when I go on missions?”

“I’m not a prince.”

“When you marry your princess you will be.” she does a slight pout and flutters her eyelids.

“I..”

She puts a finger to his lips. “Max Baby. Call me Carly or Carley, I’m still a princess. And Daddy gives us his blessing.”

‘He does?’

Carly steals a second kiss. ‘He does.’

Flash and Max hand back their hammers. Flash takes his hand. “Which one of us is going to propose?”

Max goes to drop to one knee. “I need to get a ring made. Let me talk to the captain about precious metals and Danny about fabrication. I made something for you but I don’t think it’s good enough.”

“Show me.”

“It’s in my draw in our room.”

“Show me a memory.”

Max bumps memories of cutting a daisy from some plastic flowers Sophie had found, carefully measuring the stem and having a Mitch hot glue the end under the flower.

“Aw Max, It’s perfect!”

“It’s not going to be hard wearing and long lasting.”

She gazes up into his eyes. “Our engagement better be short then. But not so short our wedding comes before Mia and Toby or Niska and Astrid.”

~~~

Sophie watched the three babies practice their surprise tumbling routine. Fee had got the other two walking and they were now progressing to roly poly forward roll gymnastics. Qi rolls and ends up on her side, starts giggling. “Mattress too soft!”

Fee rolls and stands, allows herself to fall face down. ‘Soft soft soft.’

Sophie rolls eyes, “Just do what you’ve been doing, sing your song, trust me, your parents will love it.”

Qi stands and wobbles a little, does a little curtsy. “Dada says we a dory bubble.”

“Adorable. You are. All three of you. Ten more minutes practice.” She looks down at her shoes and a couple of thoughts collide. “Roller skates!”

Qi gives her a funny look. “Anti?”

~~~

Two hours after their short Scotland visit ended Niska took a step back as Terry’s build machine door opened. “Welcome aboard!”

Terry sees a distant galaxy through the window behind her. “Wow. Peter’s going to love this!”

“I do!”

Terry steps forwards and looks around the door, sees his son getting a hug from Red. “Son!”

“Dad! Red says they’re having a party, we need to go to the lift.”

“A welcome party to take us to a party? I like this place already.”

~~~

Sophie takes to the stage, “Thank you Peaches for your lovely cover of Camila Cabello’s Consequences. Hopefully that’s got everyone in the mood for the singing challenge later.” She shakes her modified music box. “I took a pill in Ibiza by Mike Pozner is going to be sung by... Elon!”

He has a good laugh, “Avicii already knows I’m cool.”

“You’ve got one hour to memorise and practice the song in your head.”

“I don’t need it. My kids loved it. I could sing it to you right now.”

“You still get an hour. We’ve got other acts and games up first.”

“Okay.”

Sophie shakes the device again. “What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, a lovely submission from Flash’s Max, will be sung by.. Fred!”

The brothers exchange looks and a high five.

“That went down well.” She watches Niska, Red and two men take seats, Niska give Astrid a good long kiss. The younger of the two men looked nice, gives her a smile. She gives him a smile back. “Next on the list is Ed Sheeran’s Perfect Duet.. shaking twice for two names.. David and Poppy!”

There’s laughter and calls of “Fix!”

“I just shook it. There’s no other controls! Next is Taylor Swift’s Look what you made me do.” She shakes. Giggles. “Dad!”

Joe hides his face in his hands and laughs uncontrollably for a bit.

Laura nudges Michael. ‘That’s going to be painful.’

Mattie shakes her head. ‘That should be good for a laugh Bunny.’

‘One of those cringe moments when you want to leave the room Angel.’

The device is shaken again. “Alex Metric, Safe With You.. an anonymous submission.. Radiant!”

Mia squeezes Toby’s knee. ‘From me to you.’

‘How do you know that song?’

‘I didn’t. I did a lyrics search, that was my favourite match. And Radiant singing it will be perfect.’

‘You did that for me?’

‘Yes Toby.’

Toby smiles and leans in for a kiss. ‘Love you!’

Sophie does another shake. “Molly’s choice, The wheels on the bus.. our new friend Terry.”

Peter gives his father a nudge. “We know that one. Sing your version though Dad.”

“Okay.”

“Sign of the Times by Harry Styles was another anonymous submission..”

Toby bumps to Mia. ‘From Sophie.’

“.. to be sung by..” the rectangle’s given a good shake. “Leor.”

Kitten puts an arm around his shoulders and plays with his earlobe. ‘Ace! Who the heck is Harry Styles?’

‘Why the ace then?’

‘One of us gets to show off a skill that’s nothing to do with what we’re known for.’

“And Holy War by Alicia Keys.. Kitten.”

Leor gives her a big sloppy kiss. ‘Two of us. We have an Alicia Keys, I can’t say I recall any singing? Dark poetry recital sure, no songs though.’

‘Get listening and learning the words.. we’re going to ace this. Both of us.’

Sophie grins, “We had this song submitted _five_ times, no prizes for working out who by. Sticky Fingers by Above and Beyond.. Carly.”

Carly springs up out of her seat, “Awesome!Can I make it a duet with my Max? Oh please please please!”

“I don’t think anyone’s going to object.”

“Thanks!” She sits and holds hands with Max.

Sophie shook again. “PTX cover of Love Again? Um the notes said it needs five people.. Toby.. Rose.. Laura.. Miami.. and Michael!”

Toby shrugs and bumps. ‘Sorry Mia. Mum put Sun and Moon in for us, I was hoping we’d get it, now I’m off the list of possibles for today.’

‘At least Joe didn’t get it.’

Sophie shakes again. “Carly’s suggestion Follow you down by Zedd.. Mia!”

Toby pats Mia’s thigh gently, ‘I quite like that though.’

Another shake. “Booka Shade’s Numb the Pain.. Our Captain Mattie Zero. With backing vocals from.. Riri.”

The Captain looks around the room, “Who’s suggestion was that?”

Leon puts a hand up and nods towards Mattie. “Love is the knife, picks the lock of your isolation. Love is the glue that runs between me and you. Love numbs the pain.”

Zero grabs his face and plants a full on passionate kiss getting whistling, hoots and clapping from everyone else.

Sophie holds the box behind her back and waits for things to calm down. “This last one is a fix of sorts. The Pixel Princesses are going to do a song dedicated to George and David. Without their work on body and mind where would we be? Not here that’s for sure. It’s Baby Love by The Supremes. That’s the list for today, if you weren’t picked today rest assured that your name is in the list for next time, assuming everyone enjoys it. We have our first act of the evening now, then one more act before a fun food game for everyone. Please put your hands or front legs together for The Magic Max Brothers!”

Max and Max take to the stage with enthusiastic applause from Flash and Carly. One had a top with Thing 1 written in red lipstick, the other Thing 2.

“Thing two? Where’s our ladder?”

“I thought you had it?”

“You left it behind the curtain didn’t you?” He steps away.

Two puts hands together, “While my twin finds the ladder.. I have a tip to pass on. I learnt words by breaking them down and matching smaller words. Disco-n-certing is the awarding of up to nine certifications to a disco. I bet you didn’t know that did you?”

Leo hid his face behind a hand and groans. ‘Oh God.. how long has he had that one Angel?’

‘Pass. We’re going to have to teach the girls the concept of jokes before they start breaking words down incorrectly.’

‘I hope that wasn’t the joke he wanted to tell while we crossed a field after waiting for Fred at the farm. If it is it’s ancient.’

Zero tapped Samantha on the shoulder. “Look at the console.”

She turns to look. “Holy cow! .. That’s..”

“A stunning cartwheel galaxy!” Zero points.

“It is. Renie, come see.”

“Oh wow! I love the colours.”

Thing One holds the ladder up and starts climbing it with nothing providing support, his balance the only thing keeping it close to upright. He reaches out and appears to pick something from an invisible tree. His hand flicks quickly to show an apple.

Radiant turns fast to see Mia.

Mia does a little head shake. ‘Sorry! It’s a wax candle, apple scented. Sophie has them in the shop.’

‘Oh. I’d still like one. Just to look at.’

~~~

[Chapter-89](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-89-1)


	89. Chapter 89

The ten minutes of slapstick went down well. The three girl tumbling routine got lots of cooing from the mothers and other women, a few of the men. Carly did a dance routine to Zedd’s Follow You Down, polystyrene packing beads being used instead of water.

The candy floss game went down brilliantly, Danny making more floss non-stop for half an hour. Sophie and young Peter got picked by Zero to play together. Their lips touching as the last of their floss was eaten had both going somewhat bashful. Radiant and Sam got awarded the prize from Sophie, a limited supply board game from the shop.

Games over Mia announced that they had planted half a crate worth of soy seed and mint, hoped to have the beginnings of new food and drink in a month or so. Any volunteers to help with selecting seeds and growing them would be most welcome.

~~~

Ruby noticed Sophie talking to Pete and realised things might take a few minutes to get going again. She got to the stage, picked off a polystyrene bead that had just jumped onto her leg, “This wasn’t in the plan but I’d like to do a cover dedicated to Fred, Cindy and MUS James, my special thanks for creating a second dress and getting it processed in time for the party, my John for the choker and cuffs. I think you’ll agree the red gems sparkle brilliantly under the lights. It’s an old classic so if any couples fancy a slow dance get your arses over here pronto!”

Samantha frowns a little, ‘Mum? An old classic?’

‘From what was formally the Cindy Bexley side of my persona.’

‘I didn’t think Ruby would be into old classics. Although the arses over here pronto bit was definitely Ruby.’

Leo grabs Mattie’s hand, “Angel?”

“Me? Dance? I think I’m brave enough putting a figure hugging dress on, no need to embarrass myself.”

“It’s only a shuffle around the floor and cuddle. Come on. You look lovely.”

Ruby starts singing a cappella.

“Oh alright then.”

~~~

Kitten watches them both get up, Prince James, Sandra, Laura, Michael, David and Poppy take to the stage. She grabs Leor’s hand. “Come on stud, let’s show them how it’s done.” She watches Mattie in her new shoes take the steps carefully down to the bottom. ‘Mattie?’

‘Hi Kitten.’

‘Can you delete all of the films I’ve made in my world from the secure archive? Nobody here needs to see them and I’d like a fresh start.’

‘Sure?’

‘Abso-blooming-lutely.’

‘The others won’t mind?’

‘They were there. They can recall it, DC and Akala can re-enact it if they must.’

‘Okay, consider it done.’

‘Thanks, you’re an angel. I want to make some new films here..’

Mattie stops dead in front of the short steps to the shallow stage and looks around. ‘What?’

‘Romcoms, harmless fun stuff everyone can watch. Not bedroom stuff with Leor .. I’ll spare you the details although you can probably imagine a lot of it yourself what with us being identical and you jumping into our world just before the camera lights failed.’

‘Did you use the sofa a lot?’

‘Quite a bit. Want a few favourite positions bumped?’

‘Um.. maybe. Can we talk about it later?’

‘Sure. Thanks to Akala’s gossip some of the others know what we did, why we did it. At a high level. That’s all they need to know, they don’t need to see any of it. It’s all a load of fantasy bull shit anyway, you can’t learn how to be a loving partner from porn.’

‘LOL, some of the men may think otherwise. I prefer to sit at a terminal..’

‘You make love at a terminal?’

‘To login! Jeez! What I was trying to say was as it’s you I’ve just done a cheeky remote access login and deletion. It’s all gone.’

‘Frigging awesome, the awesome frigging as DC called it has gone! Thanks! It’s finally behind us.’

Mattie chuckles audibly getting odd looks from Laura. She steps up onto the stage. ‘When I visited, your Emily did say you had the best behind in the business.’

‘Still do. It wasn’t exactly hard though. In my world there weren’t many that did what we did. Most men that had been in the industry a while before us were dead or dying. Others too scared shitless to start. MIV getting the nickname _That fucking nasty STD_ was for good reasons. If it wasn’t for our ability to create a service at just the right time Leor’d be dead. Changing the subject a little, finally in a dress I see. You look hot.’

‘Flustered?’

‘Not that sort.’ Kitten raises an eyebrow, ‘Your Leo’s enjoying it.’

Mattie turns to see Leo’s dreamy look. “Is everything okay Bunny?”

“I was about to ask you the same. Absolutely perfect from where I’m standing Angel.”

Mattie takes her place by Leo and puts her left arm on his shoulder. “You lead okay?”

“Okay. Has anyone checked the stats for the stage I wonder, is it designed to have a load of people stood on it? Cindy and Odi are joining us, Frank and Barbara too.”

“Maybe Nepal can do his sonar thing, see what support is under the surface?”

“Good idea, I’ll bump. Sammy looks like she wants a dance too anyway.”

With his left hand holding her right Leo gently turns as they both rock and shuffle. “Odi must have been working hard to help Cindy get that ready.”

Mattie turns to look. “Wow. What did she use to colour the dress I wonder?”

“Gold and platinum dust would be my guess. Fred said there was a lot of it processed from the star. It looks like glitter. I wonder what they used as a glue?”

“She deserves it Bunny. She’s another that puts others first. Hello. Reg is looking a lot happier.”

As they turn Leo sees Reginald slow dance and talk with his daughter in the gap between stage and front row. “Emily thinking to question things properly, a nice find from Sophie and a problem was solved. We’ve not even been awake on this ship a week yet and already we’re coming together as a tight knit group.”

“Because most of us were in our own worlds I guess. And the new additions probably realise they have to too or find themselves very lonely.”

As Leo gets another view of the seating he sees one such person. ‘Talking of new additions, I’ve got some news re Demetria. She’s shared loads with Cindy and Barbara, mentioned some of the firms she used to accept clothes from.’

‘Why’s that news?’

‘My code was logging many thousands of web sites spread across the worlds all using the same photos.’

‘That’s understandable. If it’s a successful company..’

‘Not like that. Many dozens of sites in the UK in our world for example. All with the identical items, many with close to identical layout, FAQ and the likes. Web sites cookie cutter style, the company logo, name and address being the only things different. And no contact phone numbers.’

‘Oh. So just fronts for taking orders?’

‘Some were definitely scams. I think they were sending her the originals, selling customers terrible knock offs. I cross linked data, found tons of complaints on review sites saying product didn’t turn up, arrived months after ordering or looked little like the photo. Some photos customers posted showing what they ordered and what they got were comical. Some were saying the original photos had been stolen from people’s social media, cropped to take faces out.’

‘Frigging hell that’s outrageous! I’d bury that one Bunny. No scammers tolerated onboard this ship, there’s no need to upset her over it.’

‘Agreed Angel. That one stays with us only then. We could get data on who the scammers are, pre-downgrade their personality ratings on the Sophie Scale.’ He smells her hair. “Mmmmm. Are you wearing perfume?”

“Sophie found some products for the spa and shop. There’s not much of it so its being carefully rationed. Flash and Mia are planning to grow roses and make their own.”

“Excellent! Talking of home grown, how are the shoes?”

“Great thanks. If someone had asked me months ago if I’d wear 3D printed shoes I’d tell them to go do one. These are good. Comfortable and give us protection. Nobody wants to cut their feet up on stuff on the floor. Like the bits of metal left around from Frank and Dozer working on things.”

“One place you don’t want a nasty skin patch.”

“And we don’t have many of them. I hope Carly doesn’t overdo it with her running around.”

Leo watches Sammy dance with Tibet and gives her a wink. ‘Here’s a fun fact my trawling through random data uncovered. All the orders were sent using a system that showed volumes with two decimal points. The build machines, there should have been only twenty.’

‘Twenty?’

‘Whoever received the order must have ignored the decimal point, twenty became two thousand.’

‘Whoa! Frigging hell that’s an expensive mistake!’

‘The price that came back wasn’t one hundred times what it should have been, the firm must have given them an insane discount.’

‘In return for something I’d bet.’

‘Like priority on builds?’

‘Pass. Maybe. Who was the manufacturer, Persona?’

‘A firm I’d never heard of before. Let me do some more digging, see who’s behind it.’

‘Give me a kiss while you dig.’

~~~

[Chapter-90](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-90-1)


	90. Chapter 90

Kiss over Mattie watches Zero talking to others. ‘Tibet. Do you know what went down during the last days on Earth?’

‘Unfortunately.’

‘Something doesn’t add up. Zero’s death, when I’d jumped into her replay unexpectedly, she was in a suit with built in CTD.’

‘It might be how she wants to remember it but it didn’t end quite like that.’

‘How did it end then?’

‘She was in an AI enhanced suit, watched Earth dying, all the reactors going off below like bombs, then she lost consciousness. Mitch had me throw him out of the airlock..’

‘What!’

‘As he spun a thin drag line I could use to gently and slowly pull them both back. I got her into the CTD. My power was about to run out, her backup need was greater and it was more efficient to go airlock, CTD, charge plate.’

‘What happened to her body?’

‘I’d taken her helmet off, got her backed up and ran..’

‘You’re saying you don’t know?’

‘I was getting to it.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I got the best charge I could, returned and did a private sendoff with Mitch at the airlock. She stayed in her simulation for a good few years. Us MUS stood on our charge plates and chatted, no orders being given to do anything else. We killed time not realising our batteries were going bad with the constant charging. We’d got to the point of no return. More specifically no build starts. We were trapped. Skip forward several centuries and you’re created, you know the rest. Bobsled. Man that was inspired.’

‘When did she create all the compute wafer crew?’

‘She’d done that soon after the accident. We stayed in orbit for months incase anyone made it up to the ship.’

‘Elon’s failed mission. Something still doesn’t add up. When did she create all the different world simulations?’

‘Long after her death.’

‘Eh? That doesn’t make sense.’

‘Why not?’

‘How could she create anything when she was dead, just a backup?’

‘That’s a bit sketchy and I can only go by things discovered today. I believe Mitch got her SSD stick and took it to the computer operations desk, plugged it in and got the tree of life code going, got her into it.’

‘Mitch?’

‘Don’t be fooled by Mitch, he may be small but he’s far smarter than he lets on. Telltale web on the socket and desk underside. I think he spun a sling of sorts that allowed him to haul it up and in. Sweeping that deck for hidden Price copies took an absolute age, I found the SSD while we checked that row.’

‘Desk underside?’

‘The socket is mounted underneath the desk top out of the way so it can’t be knocked.’

‘And out of sight so if you didn’t know it was there you’d miss it?’

‘Correct.’

‘Was the key scanned?’

‘Zero’s SSD stick was scanned by you.’

‘Sure?’

‘Absolutely. Emily bumped a memory of seeing you scan it. The large long black and orange one with an M written on the end in metallic silver?’

‘There was an M on the end? I didn’t notice.’

Tibet bumps the memory shared.

‘Cool. So I did. And somehow she managed to exist in there and interface with the rest of the ship?’

‘She must have done. In order to create everything else. Mitch again I’d bet. It wasn’t me, I don’t have the skills.’

Mattie smiles at Leo, stands closer. ‘Zero, why did you call Mitch Mitch?’

‘My Itch.’

‘Sorry?’

‘I had a scratch that needed itching. Mattie’s Itch. Mitch.’

‘Why did you build him and not Leo, Toby or..’

‘Guilt, fear, depression..’

‘Guilt? What were you guilty of?’

‘Living. Being the only one that got off Earth.’

‘That wasn’t your fault, you shouldn’t have felt guilty about it.’

‘Thanks. It wasn’t so easy to think that way then.’

‘Why fear?’

‘Of bringing family back from their recent backups, how horrible it would be for them. Many didn’t like the idea of coming back as synths.’

‘Bringing us back from the time trimmed backups sorted that out.’

‘I guess. Most worlds got to relive the trimmed years in the simulations without their Earth going to shit. Mind if I sing early? I’d like to get Leon to myself for a bit..’

‘Mind? Why would we mind? I’ll share memories of whoever you miss singing later. Go have some fun and me time.’

‘Thanks.’

Mattie watches Zero give her a smile, go to talk to Sophie. ‘Tibet, another question if I may?’

‘Sure.’

‘How did you get to meet Mattie?’

‘I met Laura first, at my trial.’

‘Trial?’

‘We’d been posted to a war zone. A young man ran past me, stank of explosives. I sonar pinged him, could see he had things strapped around his chest.’

‘A suicide bomber.’

‘That was my conclusion so I gave chase. With him getting closer and closer to our unit I made the call to take him out. Unfortunately my conclusion was incorrect.’

‘What was he then?’

‘A bomb maker. Probably out to steal more explosives. His government wanted to have me charged with his murder as he was unarmed.’

‘You said he had things strapped around his chest?’

‘The tools of his trade, wire, things for picking locks. Not a finished bomb. He was fourteen.’

‘Shit.’

‘Laura flew out to defend me. The world’s first ever case of a human defending an AI.’

‘In ours it was Mum defending Niska.’

‘I heard. The ministry of defence decided that they didn’t want AI soldiers anymore, we were too much of a liability. She appealed for our freedom. We all got dropped off at the estate. That caused some issues I can tell you.’

‘Why?’

‘Six hundred MUS that each need a high current charge plate? The power bill alone was enough to cripple a small firm so we hired ourselves out to any positive causes; building shelters for refugees, removing rubbish from the oceans, rebuilding war torn buildings.’

‘Six _hundred_?’

‘Yes. We scattered around the world trying to do good. Then the call came. Earth’s climate was on a fast runaway curve, beyond anyone’s stopping. I was one of the first to volunteer to do the seed and DNA sample collecting. That was fun, for a short while, being dropped from airplanes like a bomb, getting picked up by balloon and drag line. Then Mattie said the first forty to have stepped up could have a charge plate on the ship. Some of the lads decided they didn’t want to carry on, had lived long enough. The rest all got sent up on the laser link.’

‘They’re all here, as backups?’

‘Yes.’

‘When do they get build bodies?’

Tibet shrugs, ‘Ask the boss.’

‘I will.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Why hasn’t Mitch told me any of this?’

‘Maybe you’ve not asked the right questions? I suspect he’s long linked some memories like she did, buried them deep. Things they’d rather forget but can’t. Mitch for example, being stood at a window with me when their sky lift was wiped out. We were looking forward to seeing them all, one moment things were good, the next we see Leo push her hard towards the open airlock. Then the impact. Hearing her screaming over the intercom.. I’ll never forget that. The raw unfiltered terror and pain.’

‘Shit! Sorry to drag that memory up.’

‘I hadn’t buried it. Quite the opposite. It drives me. With every atom in my body I will do whatever I can to ensure it doesn’t happen again and that everyone in the family is safe. Which is why I had a good long chat with Nepal earlier.’

~~~

[Chapter-91](http://markse.name/humans/LAST_N_FINAL/Chapter-91-1)


	91. Chapter 91

Their song’s worth of slow dancing over, the planned singing got underway with Elon taking to the stage.

Sat back in their seats Leo puts a hand on Mattie’s leg. ‘Guess who was behind the build machines order funding, trying to be a silent backer.’

‘Elon?’

‘No, close.’

‘Close?’

‘Also in this room.’

‘Frigging hell! Prince James!’

‘Closer. Sandra.’

‘Eh?’

‘His new wife Sandra.’

‘How’s that possible, Mia took her body over after the awakening?’

‘In our world. Remember Zero tinkered with things to mix things up. My money’s on the Sandra we know being based on his real wife.’

‘And her personality? Is Mia Sandra?’

‘We’ll never know. Maybe our Mia is a blend. Or Anita is Sandra. Who cares, it’s just a name. She’s nice whatever she’s called. I bet she covered the cost of the build machine order error in return for coming back with her daughters. Like James she’d have known money wouldn’t be worth much soon with a collapse of global finance looming.’

‘One smart cookie.’

‘I found something else while digging. Data on an atomic clock that’s reporting the actual date. And something that confirms how many times she started and restarted worlds.’

‘Restarted? How many times did she restart ours?’

‘Never. You were her last hope. Which as we know worked.’

‘And the date?’

‘2672. 11:03:34AM.’

‘Haha, and here we are thinking it’s late evening. I guess it’s just a meaningless number unless you’re on a planet orbiting a star.’

~~~

Fake Renie Two listened to the bug she’d planted in the cinema. After hours of waiting finally conditions were right. Her stupid husband and son were in the group, how had that happened? Never mind. They were synths now so expendable. The party sounded to be in full swing. At last people were all together in the right place. She’d tampered with the DLP and audio in screens two and three to ensure screen one was used. She slowly and carefully shifts along the hull and ducks just in time to avoid being hit by a fast moving meteor fragment. She had new movement detection code running against her optical inputs, a partial overclocking that woke the rest of her body up. It allowed for better battery life, something she needed to extend. Much as a synth body allowed her to do things she’d never imagined possible before she hated it. It was a means to an end and nothing more. She need to live long enough for everyone to die.

Stupid. That’s what this lot were. Totally fucking stupid. They had secured the WiFi with a VPN to lock her out. It didn’t matter. She didn’t need it now. Reaching to her left forearm with her right hand she pushes a button on a transmitter taped to the suit. Nothing happens. She pushes it again, much harder. On release the top of the button springs off and spins away. “Shit! How’d I break that? Fucking meteor crap! Plan B then.”

The music would mask any noises. She’d get inside and patch in somewhere, start working out how to replicate again. They’d not win this war. Synth kind was an abomination, needed to be ended. It would be Gemma Price one, everyone else nil. For a few minutes to confirm the score before she pulled her own power. Then it would all be over. The universe could continue just fine without synth kind.

Price shifts further along the hull using the floor tile suckers. It took ages and a lot of care. Normally they were easy to use, a partial vacuum created inside and atmospheric pressure outside kept them in place. These needed a lot more pumping and something sticky she’d found slowly oozing out of a pipe on the Dragon that assisted with the grip. As the ship was passing through a super large low density nebula on it’s constant quest for fuel for the ion drives there was pressure, just very little of it. Picking Renie’s body had been a good move. She was slight, light, not overly muscular build wise. Big enough for the suit. Having a teather that might give her location on the hull away was the last thing she needed. Slowly, softly, catchy synthy. Her charge was still good. She had time. Time for those inside was running out.

~~~

The group were working through the songs, the Captain had been allowed to sing her song early. Price could hear it clearly and a load of people clapping to the beat. Dancing probably too. Love numbs the pain? She could picture them all moving around to the bouncy song, would bounce some of their heads before she was done. There wouldn’t be enough love in the universe to numb the pain they’d all feel soon!

~~~

Another twenty minutes of slow progress gets Price onto the leading edge of the airlock. She looks in through the small window. The Dragon IV had gone, dust marks on the floor made it clear it had been carried inside. Good. She turns the handle on the emergency control panel cover and opens it up, turns a lever to unlock the door. She feels the vibration from the mechanism through it. Good, the inner airlock door was closed properly. Pumping a handle to hydraulically open the airlock she starts the long job of getting inside. After many dozens of pumps dust flew out of the small crack. The airlock door was ridiculously big and heavy.

~~~

Sophie and Renie stood either side of Radiant.

Radiant looks at her friends. ‘Ready?’

‘Ready!’

Sophie taps her box to start the track.

Radiant starts doing the dance they’d practiced, Sophie and Renie copying her moves. “You and I, were born under the same sign. It’s a silent promise, that we never need to speak a word of to anyone. Its like we aimed an arrow, inches from the heart, and if we stretch that bow too much, everything will fall apart..”

~~~

Slowly the gap grew. The music in the cinema was getting annoying. Safe with you? They wouldn’t be for long. Price pumped and pumped the lever. God did the bloody door move slowly! Minute by minute the gap grew bigger. The dance track had ended, a man who was clearly tone deaf was now killing a song. That must be the BBI Mattie had spoken of. I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me, I'll be the actress starring in your bad dreams? God he sang it so off key it was awful. She’d off him first, assuming she could put a face to the voice. He sounded like he was a bit of a moaner, the sort that would get on your nerves fast. She finishes pumping the lever and carefully crabs towards the gap.

~~~

Nepal sees a shadow appear on the floor, steps to face the gap from the inside, grabs her fast with one hand and punches super hard with the other, his armoured fist breaking through the visor deep into the synths face. “GO AWAY BITCH! Ooh, look what you made me do! I’ve been waiting _hours_ for you to come in. Now I can join the party rather than just listen in, you finally lost.” He pulls his fist out and checks the glove armour designed by his brother Tibet. “Perfect.” He folds her arms around a box. “You on the other hand weren’t so good. Leaving a spare bug in your case was stupid, Danny easily reverse engineered it to work out how I could listen in. The bomb you planted in cinema one, take it with you. As the humans say, go to hell!” He triple taps a box looking like one of the music players and pushes her away. Characters appear on the front and a second later ripple update from 4:00:00 to 3:59:59. The dead synth slowly turns as it drifts away from the ship.

Nepal turns off the kitchen freezer suit mod that was combatting the heat created by his extreme overclocking. “ _Never_ underestimate a Hawkins, Elster, Candlin, Millican or their close friends.” He waves, “See you never! I'm sorry, the bitch can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause she's finally dead!" He watches the friction from the nebula slow her down, get her further from the ship. When the bomb went off they’d be far from the explosion. The nebula was rich in combustible gases and would look stunning on the ship’s rear view cameras. He hits the close button on the door that had been secretly repaired many hours earlier.

With the door locked he disconnects his umbilical cable from the inside of the control panel. Nothing had been said, bumped or spoken. All of the noise of the work had been masked by Dozer and the grinder. Everything in the plan had been written on tiny strips of paper like sayings in fortune cookies, shared, then eaten with candy floss. He starts singing and dancing to a song Sophie had found for him that matched his mission. He had no idea who Shania Twain was but he liked her words. “I'm gonna getcha while I gotcha in sight. I'm gonna getcha. I'm gonna getcha if it takes all night. Yeah, you can betcha. You can betcha by the time I say _GO_ , you'll _NEVER_ say _no_.” He taps control buttons and waits for the display to say he had atmosphere. ‘Tibet, thanks for being my body double buddy.’

‘Sure bro, no problem.’

Inner airlock opened a meter he steps sideways onto the the deck to see a woman looking very lost sat on a unicorn. He’d not seen her before.

She dismounts and smiles, “Hello Nepal, if you’re inside now that must mean you’ve got rid of the bug on the windshield. Well done. I’m Venus. Can you tell me where I can find George please?”

Nepal keeps one eye on the beast and presses the control to close the door, puts out an elbow. “I was told you might come wandering. They deliberately kept your machines off network and didn’t give you the WiFi and VPN passwords to keep you safe from you know who.”

“That bitch Price.”

“Yes. It would be my pleasure to escort you to the cinema.”

“Thank you kind sir. I found this dress and shoes outside the build machine with a note, it said to meet him at the party. We’ve been trying decks at random, selecting things based on where I could see the most fingerprints on the controls.”

“They didn’t leave a map of the ship in your fact store?”

“An oversight of my many parents. I have memories of being in a large room with them and a mountain of empty coffee cups, not how I got there or left. How do I look? Your honest opinion please.”

“You look lovely. Like a lady of the silver screen.”

“Thank you. The note said that an Emily programmed the machine to style my hair. Any idea which?”

“Sorry, hair’s not exactly my thing. A quick bit of sugar soap to get mine standing and I’m done.” Nepal leads her towards the lift, the unicorn turns and follows.

Nepal glances over his shoulder to see how close it was. ‘Watch out Sammy, Captain, Matty, gang, _mission accomplished!_ I’ve got someone with me wanting to see you George, Sophie. Most elegant. Get some good music ready for later, I’m in the mood to throw down some serious moves! Price is verifiably over, light show in just under four hours. Laura, Joe, you should be very proud of your Mattie, she’s become an excellent strategist. Our fight for freedom from evil is over.’


End file.
